Win 8 For Dummies

Exploring
Windows 8
by Galen Gruman, Mark Justice Hinton,
Woody Leonhard, and Andy Rathbone
01_9781118484791-ffirs.indd i
11/9/12 1:00 PM
Introduction....................................................... 1
Publishers Acknowledgments
Using Windows 8 on Touchscreens..................... 8
Were proud of this book; please send us

your comments at http://dummies.
custhelp.com. For other comments,
please contact our Customer Care
Department within the U.S. at 877-7622974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993,
or fax 317-572-4002.
Working with Charms ..................................... 20
Some of the people who helped bring this

book to market include the following::
Windows 8 Basics .............................................. 2
Apps and Files ................................................. 28

Getting Apps from the Windows Store .............. 33
Choosing between the Start Screen
and Desktop .................................................. 38
Acquisitions and Editorial

Senior Project Editor: Kim Darosett
Executive Editor: Steven Hayes
Copy Editor: Virginia Sanders
Editorial Manager: Leah Michael
Editorial Assistant: Leslie Saxman
Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case
Composition Services
Files in the Cloud with SkyDrive...................... 43

Going Online.................................................... 47
Chatting through Messaging ........................... 66
Using Everyday Apps ....................................... 67
Photography in Windows 8 ............................... 81
Sharing Photos............................................... 91
Music and Video .............................................. 95
Burning CDs and DVDs ................................. 105
Customizing Windows ..................................... 107
Making Windows More Accessible ................. 117
Windows Networking...................................... 119
Sr. Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees

Layout and Graphics: Ana Carrilo,
Kathie Rickard, Rashell Smith,
Erin Zeltner
Proofreader: Sossity R. Smith
Front Cover Photo: Yaroslav
Gavryliuk / iStockphoto
Back Cover Photo: ViviSuArt /
iStockphoto
Page 2: Image of PC: Sandra Nicol /
iStockphoto; image of tablet computer:
adam smigielski / iStockphoto;
image of laptop: 4X-image /
iStockphoto
Publishing and Editorial for
Technology Dummies
Richard Swadley, Vice President and
Executive Group Publisher
Andy Cummings, Vice President and
Publisher
Mary Bednarek, Executive
Acquisitions Director
Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director
Publishing for Consumer Dummies
Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President
and Executive Publisher
Safety and Security........................................ 127
Debbie Stailey, Director of

Setting Up Parental Controls......................... 137

Refreshing and Restoring Windows................ 139
02_9781118484791-ftoc.indd ii
11/9/12 1:00 PM
Introduction
I
ts the biggest change to Windows since Windows XP debuted over a decade

ago. Its also very much the same Windows you know from Windows 7.
It is Windows 8, the new version of the most-used operating system on
the planet.
What makes Windows 8 so radically different is its Start screen environment,
which features big, bold tiles, full-screen applications, a simplified user interface,
new ways of accessing features (such as through charms and the App bar), and
support for touchscreen usage similar to the iPad.
What makes Windows 8 so familiar is that underneath that new Start screen
environment lies the Windows Desktop, which is nearly identical to the Windows 7
you probably already use. It runs the apps you already know, and it works with
files and the web the same way.
Using Windows 8 is very much like using two operating systems in one, and
you switch between them based on the kind of apps you want to run: simple
apps in the Start screen, complex ones in the Windows Desktop. This duality is
particularly well suited for a tablet, where you can use the touch-oriented Start
screen environment when on the road and then plug into a keyboard, mouse,
and monitor when youre at a desk to get the full Windows 7 experience for apps
such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, and QuickBooks.
Even better, its not an either/or decision. You can use the full Windows Desktop
on a touchscreen tablet no mouse, keyboard, or monitor required. It just
works better with them. Likewise, you can use the Start screen when connected
to a mouse, keyboard, and monitor. Its just a little easier when youre using a
touchscreen (which is why many new desktop PCs and laptops not just tablets
will have touchscreens).
Windows 8 is Microsofts way of embracing the new kind of computing that
the iPhone and iPad introduced while remaining compatible with two decades
worth of Windows know-how and applications. Yes, it is a little confusing at
first to have essentially two operating systems in one, but when you cross that
bridge, youll find richer land on the other side. This book helps you embrace
the dual environments.
03_9781118484791-intro.indd 1
11/9/12 12:59 PM
Windows 8 Basics
Getting Started with

Windows 8
IN THIS ARTICLE
Exploring whats
new in Windows 8
Working with user
accounts
Setting up a
password
ts the Windows for everything: Windows 8 is the

first version of Windows
designed to run on desktop
PCs, laptops, and touch-based
PC tablets. To do that, it brings
a whole new way of working
with Windows called the Start
screen environment (sometimes known by its code name,
Metro). The Start screen is a
sleek, tile-based user interface
designed especially for touchscreen users and is based on
Microsofts Windows Phone operating system for smartphones.
Keyboard-and-mouse users can
work with the Start screen, too
its the face of Windows that you
see every time you start your PC.
But fear not: The familiar Windows 7
desktop remains available as well
on almost all Windows PCs, and
youll use the Windows Desktop
to run your familiar Windows
applications, now called Windows
Desktop apps. Essentially, you
have two PCs in one with Windows 8 the Start
screen side and the Windows Desktop side and
you switch between the two as you use your PC, as
explained later on.
2
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 2
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Getting Started with Windows 8
Whats New in Windows 8

Windows 8 is Microsofts move to broaden Windows to
tablets in a bid to compete with Apples wildly popular iPad.
And that means the adoption of the touch-oriented Start
screen environment that debuted in 2010 in smartphones
using Microsofts Windows Phone operating system.
Windows 8 is divided into these two environments:
Start screen: This is now the environment you
see first and that Microsoft hopes youll use

most. Its clean, simple tile interface and fullscreen apps are easy to use after you get used
to the new way of doing things. The People
app gives you a unified place for all your social
networking interactions. And Windows now
displays notifications as they come in from
your e-mail, messaging, and other
apps, no matter what apps are in use.
Windows Desktop: Although the Start
Among the changes in the updated Windows Desktop:
The Start button has been removed youre
supposed to use the Start screen as your

starting point for accessing apps.
Windows
Explorer has been renamed File

Explorer and now has a Ribbon that appears at
the top of its window.
Task Manager, where advanced users monitor
whats happening in Windows, has gotten a lot

more graphical.
And if you have multiple monitors connected to your PC,

you can now share the same desktop background across
them all. For touchscreen users, the new Start screen
onscreen keyboard is much easier to use than
the old Windows onscreen keyboard, and
its available in both the Start screen and the
Windows Desktop environments.
The Start screen is

a clean, simple
tile interface . . .
thats easy to use
screen and its apps represent the biggest

changes to Windows, Microsoft has also
enhanced the traditional desktop in
Windows 8. After all, most people have
a significant investment in Windows
software that they dont want to throw
away just because the Start screen
environment is the new face of Windows. Plus,
Start screen apps dont yet support the kind of
complex operations that traditional Windows
can thats why Microsofts new Office 2013
isnt a collection of Start screen apps but of
traditional Windows apps.
Windows 8 boasts a new way to reinstall

Windows that keeps your documents and
data but resets Windows 8 to the factory
defaults. You can still do a complete reinstall
that wipes out everything if you prefer. The
Windows Defender antivirus software is now included in
Windows, and the File History feature backs up your data
and settings automatically, so you can restore older copies
of your files.
Most of the other changes are under the hood, including
faster graphics performance, faster startup, and enhanced
support for peripheral technologies such as USB 3.0 and
cellular modems.
The Windows 8 Start screen (left) and the Windows 8 Desktop (right)
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 3
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Windows 8 Basics
Working with User

Accounts
When you start up Windows 8, you see a simple screen
with a pretty picture and not much else. (The Start screen
comes later.) Its called the lock screen. How do you unlock
the lock screen? The answer depends on whether youre
using a mouse, a keyboard, or a touchscreen:
Mouse: On a desktop PC or laptop, click any

mouse button.
Keyboard: Press any key, and the lock screen

slides away. Easy!
Touchscreen: On a touchscreen display, touch
the screen with your finger and then slide your

finger up the glass. A quick flick of the finger
will do.
The lock screen may show some status icons:

Network connection enabled via Ethernet
Wi-Fi connection enabled
Battery status (for devices not connected via a
power cord)
Notifications from applications for new mail,
calendar reminders, and the like
The lock screen is not simply a step in the way of getting
into Windows. When coupled with a password, it ensures
that no one else can use your computer or access its
information. Even without a password, it works like a
screensaver in that it hides what youre working on from
any passersby. Windows 8 automatically locks the screen
after a specified period of nonuse. You can manually lock
the screen, as well: Click or tap your user icon in the Start
screen and choose Lock from the pop-up menu, or press
+L on a keyboard.
Signing in to your user account

After youve gotten past the lock screen, Windows wants
you to sign in by clicking or tapping your name and typing
in a password. Doing so signs you into your Windows user
account, where all your files, programs, and settings reside.
You may have just one user account or several. For
example, Windows lets you have a shared user account
that synchronizes with all other PCs you have signed into
via the same account, so every device is kept up-to-date.
You can have a local account, which is not synchronized to
other PCs you use. You can have both. (We explain how
The Windows 8 lock screen (top), the Sign In screen for a PC with several user accounts,
and the Sign In screen for a selected user
to create user accounts in the next section.) And multiple

people can have accounts on the same PC, such as for a
family or group of employees sharing a PC.
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 4
11/9/12 1:53 PM

If you dont see a username listed for you on the Sign In
screen, you have several options:
If you see your name and e-mail address
listed, type your password. Windows 8 lets

you in and displays your Start screen, just as
you last left it.
If you dont see your name, but you have
an account on the computer, click or
tap the left-pointing arrow shown in the
margin. Windows 8 displays a list of all the
account holders. You may see the computer
owners name, as well as an Administrator
account and a Guest account.
If you just bought the computer, use the

account named Administrator. Designed to
give the owner full power over the computer,
the Administrator account user can set up new
accounts for other people, install programs,
start an Internet connection, and access all the
files on the computer even those belonging
to other people. Windows 8 needs at least one
person to act as administrator.
Use
the Guest account. Designed for

household visitors, this account lets guests,
such as the babysitter or visiting relatives, use
the computer temporarily.
No Guest account? Then find out who owns

the computer and beg that person to set up
a username for you or to turn on the Guest
account.
In addition to Administrator and standard accounts,

Microsoft has another pair of account types, Microsoft
accounts and Local accounts. So whats the difference? Each
serves different needs:
Local
account: This account works fine for

people working with traditional Windows
programs on the Windows desktop. Local
account holders cant run many of the Start
screen apps bundled with Windows 8,
including the Mail app. Nor can they download
new apps from the Microsoft online store.
Microsoft
account: Consisting of an e-mail

address and a password, this account lets you
download apps from the Windows Store and
run all the bundled apps in Windows 8. You
can link a Microsoft account with your social
media accounts, automatically stocking your
address book with your friends from Facebook,
Twitter, and other sites. (Plus, you can access
both your own and your friends Facebook
photos.)
You can sign in with a Microsoft account in either of two

ways:
Use an existing Microsoft account. If you
use Outlook.com, Hotmail, Windows Live,

Xbox Live, or Windows Messenger, you already
have a Microsoft account and password. Type
in that e-mail address and password when
setting up your user account and from then on
in the Sign In screen.
Sign
up for a new Microsoft account.

When creating or modifying a user account,
click or tap Sign Up for a Microsoft Account,
which opens a website where you can turn
your existing e-mail address into a Microsoft
account or, if you prefer, sign up for a new
e-mail address for that account.
Until you customize your username picture, youll see

a silhouette. To add a photo to your user account,
click or tap your username in the screens corner and
choose Change Account Picture. Click the Webcam
button to take a quick shot with your computers
built-in webcam. No webcam? Then click Browse to
peek through existing photos. Hint: Click or tap Files
and choose Pictures to see all the photos on your PC.
If you have multiple user accounts, its easy to switch

among them: Click or tap your username or picture in
the Start screen and choose Sign Out. The lock screen
appears; click the screen or swipe up from the bottom
edge to get the Sign In screen, click or tap the user
account you want to sign in as, enter your password,
and youre done!
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 5
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Windows 8 Basics
Setting up and modifying user accounts

But how do you add and modify user accounts? Follow these steps:
Open the Charms bar and click

or tap Settings.
Click or tap the Change PC

Settings link.
Click or tap Users in the menu

list at left and scroll down until
the Add a User button is visible;
click or tap it.
Enter an e-mail address to add

a user who has a Microsoft
account and click or tap Next.
Or, to create a local account
instead, click or tap Sign In
without a Microsoft account, fill
in the requested information
on the screen that appears, and
then click or tap Next.
If the account is for a child

whose activity you want to
monitor, select the Is This
a Childs Account? option.
Regardless, click or tap Finish to
complete the setup.
The Charms bar is a small pane

with a handful of icons, located
on the right of the screen.
Press +C (if you have a
physical keyboard) to open
the Charms bar. Or on a
touchscreen, you can access it
by swiping the right edge of
the screen until the Charms bar
appears: Put your finger off the
screen on the right side and
drag it toward the center.
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 6
11/9/12 1:53 PM
What else you can do on the Sign In screen

The Sign In screen offers two options unrelated to signing
in to your account:
The Accessibility icon (in the screens bottom-left corner)
customizes Windows 8 for people with physical
challenges in hearing, sight, or manual dexterity. If
you click or tap this button by mistake, click or tap on
a different part of the screen to avoid changing any
settings.
The Power icon (in the screens bottom-right corner) lets

you shut down, put to sleep, or restart your PC. When
you click or tap it, you get a menu with the Restart
and Shut Down options; on a laptop or PC tablet, you
may also see the Sleep option. (If youve accidentally
shut down your PC, dont panic. Press your PCs power
button, and your PC returns to this screen.) The Power
button is also available via the Settings charm, described
later on.
Setting a password for your user account

Because Windows 8 lets many people use the same
computer, how do you stop Rob from reading Dianes love
letters to Jason Bieber? How can Josh keep Grace from
deleting his Star Wars movie trailers? Using a password
solves some of those problems.
In fact, a password is more important than ever in
Windows 8 because some accounts can be tied to a credit
card. By typing a secret password when signing in, only
you (or someone you entrusted with your password) can
sign in to your account. If you protect your username with
a password, nobody can access your files. And nobody can
rack up charges for computer games while youre away
from home.
When you create a user account, youre asked for a password.
To change your password, click or tap the Settings charm,
click Change PC Settings, click Users on the left side of the
charm, and then click Change Your Password on the right
For your password, choose something like the name

of your favorite vegetable, for example, or your dental
floss brand. To beef up its security level, capitalize
some letters and embed a number in the password,
like Glide2 or Ask4More. (Dont use either of those two
examples, though, because theyve probably been
added to every password crackers arsenal by now.)
And remember that passwords are case-sensitive. The
words Caviar and caviar are considered two different
passwords.
side. Enter your new password (you need to enter it twice,

to confirm you typed it correctly) and provide a hint that
will be displayed should you enter an incorrect password
several times. Click or tap Next and then click or tap Finish.
Rather than a password composed of letters and numerals,
you can create a password that contains just numerals,
known as a PIN, by selecting the Create a PIN option. A
PIN is less secure than a password, and there is no reminder
hint should you forget it.
Windows also offers the Create a Picture Password option
in the Users pane of the Settings charm. Click or tap it
and then, in the screen that appears, click Choose Picture
to choose the image you want to appear. Then use your
mouse or (on a touchscreen) your finger to draw the shape
you want to use as your password. You have to draw that
same shape in the same location on the picture each time
you need to sign in.
If you dont want a password to sign in to your

computer, you can disable the password feature but
that isnt recommended, because that means anyone
can use your PC, its software, and its accounts. To
disable passwords, click or tap the Change My
Password option in the Users pane of the PC Settings
screen, leave the New Password text field blank, and
click or tap Next.
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 7
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Windows 8 Basics
Using Windows 8
on Touchscreens
O
ne of the big changes in Windows 8 is its extensive support for touchscreens. Previous versions of
Windows have long supported pen-based (stylus)
computing and even touchscreens, but, frankly, not well. In
Windows 8, Microsoft has designed the Start screen environment explicitly for use on touchscreen devices and modified the Windows Desktop to be more touch-savvy.
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 8
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Using Windows 8 on Touchscreens
The Multiple Keyboards in Windows 8

The onscreen keyboard in Windows 8 is available in both
the Start screen and Windows Desktop environments. In the
Start screen, it appears automatically when you tap in a text
field; in the Windows Desktop, it appears automatically only
in Windows 8savvy applications and must be manually
opened from the taskbar in other applications, including
Windows services such as the File Explorer and Control
Panel.
You can also set the onscreen keyboard to be fixed to the

bottom of the screen or to be free-floating, so you can drag
it around the screen. If the keyboard has space on either
side, it is free-floating; if it extends to the both the left and
right edges of the screen, it is fixed. The ability to move the
onscreen keyboard is particularly useful on the Windows
Desktop because dialog boxes and other controls dont
move themselves from beneath the keyboard.
The onscreen keyboard has several guises that you can

switch among as needed, using its Keyboard key.
The handwriting keyboard (for entering text via a pen)
The standard, simplified onscreen keyboard
The split keyboard
The extended keyboard with all the keys of a physical keyboard
Press the &123 key to get a version of the standard

keyboard with special symbols and numerals. Use
the and keys to switch between the two sets
of available symbols. Press &123 again to get the
standard alphabetic keyboard.
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 9
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Windows 8 Basics
The Basic Gestures in Windows 8

Windows 8 has a small set of gestures you can use on a touchscreen to work with objects and the Windows 8 user
interface. Note that a gesture functions only if an object is enabled to use that gesture; gestures are ignored otherwise.
Gesture
Name
Action
Tap
Press a fingertip on the screen and then quickly pull it away from the screen. This action is used as a click or as the equivalent of
pressing Enter.
Drag
Press a fingertip on an object on the screen and then pull your finger across the screen to where you want to move the object to.
If you drag a resizing handle or an object edge, you may resize the object instead.
Swipe
Move one finger in a single direction, such as up or left. This action is used both for scrolling and to activate some Windows features, such as the Charms bar.
Pinch
Hold your thumb and forefinger on the screen, apart from each other, and then draw them closer together. This action is used to
zoom out (shrink the items).
Expand
Hold your thumb and forefinger on the screen, close to each other, and then spread them apart. This action is used to zoom in
(enlarge the items).
Rotate
Place two fingertips on the screen near each other and then rotate your wrist to twist the fingers. This action rotates the selected
item.
Setting Up a PC Tablet for Readability

Windows 8 is designed to run on a variety of devices, from
PC tablets to desktop PCs with really big monitors. In the
process, smaller devices got shortchanged especially
tablets. If youre much over 40, youll probably find
Windows 8 difficult to read on a PC tablet or other smaller
screen (meaning anything smaller than 1,366 x 768 pixels)
without reading glasses on. Thats especially true of the
Windows Desktop, which favors a cramped design that on a
touchscreen device makes accurately tapping menu options
and icons difficult, even when you can read them.
the Ease of Access pane, adjust the display by selecting

the Make Everything on Your Screen Bigger option, if your
tablet supports this option.
From the Windows Desktop, launch the Control Panel and
go to the Display settings. In the Change the Size of All
Items section, select Medium (125%) or, if available on your
device, Larger (150%). You may want to further customize
the text size in the Change Only the Text Size section by
adjusting the individual UI elements via the pop-up menu
below to at least 10 points.
You can make

Windows
8
friendlier to older
eyes, however.
Youll need to do
so in two places:
via the Settings
charm in the Start
screen half of
Windows 8 and via
the Control Panel
on the Windows
Desktop.
In the Settings
charm, tap Change
PC Settings, and in
10
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 10
Recommended settings for readability on a PC tablet for, the Start screen (left), and the Windows Desktop (right)
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Working with the Start Screen
Working with the

Start Screen
IN THIS ARTICLE
Using
app tiles Organizing tiles Customizing the Start screen
very time you start up and sign in to

your PC, switch user accounts, or sign
in to your account after you or the PC
has locked it, you get the Start screen.
The Start screen features live app tiles (top), the Recent Apps bar (bottom left) lets you switch among open applications,
and the Charms bar (bottom right) provides quick access to common functions
The Start screen is where you access applications (such as

the People app, the Mail app, and more) and change basic
settings. From the Start screen, you can also switch to the
Windows Desktop to configure more advanced settings (via
the familiar Control Panel), access the Windows file system
(via the File Explorer), and run traditional applications, such

as Word or Excel. You can launch such applications from
the Start screen, as described later. Doing so switches you
automatically to the Windows Desktop.
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 11
11
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Windows 8 Basics
Discovering the Start Screen

The Start screen works slightly differently depending on
whether youre using a mouse or your finger to direct the
action. (If needed, you can connect a mouse to a PC tablet
via USB or Bluetooth.) Despite some differences in how you
access them, the basic operations are the same:
Access
the Charms bar. Press

+C (if
you have a physical keyboard) to open the
Charms bar. Or hover the mouse pointer over
the bottom-right corner or top-right corner of
the screen called hot corners until the
charm icons appear, and then move the mouse
into the Charms bar to have its background
turn black and the charms labels appear. On
a touchscreen, swipe from the right edge of
the screen to open the Charms bar. Charms
provide quick access to common operations
such as Search and Settings. Click or tap a
charm to open it.
Access and switch among open apps. Click
or tap the Start charm to switch between the

Start screen and open apps, including the
Windows Desktop. Each click or tap cycles
you to the next open item. You can also click
the top-left or bottom-right hot corners of the
screen. On a touchscreen, swipe from the
screens left edge to toggle the screen. You can
also press the
key on a physical keyboard.
Open the Recent Apps bar. If you hover the
mouse pointer over either of the left hot corners

or use your finger to swipe from the left edge
and then drag back without releasing your
finger from the screen, a thumbnail appears of
the next recently opened item. Drag it out from
The hot corners work only with

a mouse, trackball, or other
physical input device. They
dont respond to taps on a
touchscreen.
the edge a little and then drag it back to the

edge to open the Recent Apps bar that shows
all recently open apps so you can select any
one you want. You can also just press and hold
+Tab and then click or tap the desired item.
Open the App bar. Right-click the bottom of
the screen or swipe up from the bottom of the

screen to open the App bar. On the Start screen,
theres just one icon on the App bar, All Apps,
which shows tiles for all Windows applications
and controls, not just the standard Start screen
and Office apps and controls usually displayed
on the Start screen.
Scroll the Start screen. Scroll using the scroll
bar or by swiping sideways anywhere on the

screen to move among the tiles on the Start
screen. Click or tap a tile to open its app. Use
the Desktop tile to switch to the Windows
Desktop.
Adjust
sizing. Click the Minimize icon to

reduce the tiles size to fit onscreen; on a
touchscreen PC, use the pinch and expand
gestures to zoom out and in, respectively.
Search for apps. If you have a physical

keyboard, you can start typing when the Start
screen is visible to open the Search pane listing
apps that match what youve typed so far. This
is a handy way to find apps, both in the Start
screen and in the Windows Desktop. Note that
you cant use the onscreen keyboard for such
searches on a tablet; use the All Apps option
on the App bar or the Search charm instead.
If youre running Windows 8

on a Mac via Boot Camp in
OS X, Parallels Desktop, or
EMC VMwares Fusion, you
typically use the Mac key or
the Shift+ combination as the
equivalent of the PC
key.
You can disable the ability to

switch among recent apps by
going to the Settings charms
PC Settings, selecting the
General pane, and setting the
App Switching switch to Off.
12
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 12
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Using a mouse (top) or your finger (bottom) to work with the Start screen
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 13
13
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Windows 8 Basics
In addition to the Charms bar and hot corners, the Start
screen has tiles. A tile can be a live window into the
application commonly called an app. For example, a
weather apps tile can show the current weather conditions,
so you dont need to open the app to get the basic weather
information. Likewise, a social networks tile can show
current messages and posts. But a tile may be no more
than an icon for its application; it need not have a live
component.
Working with Tiles

The Start screen is or should be your one stop for the
activities you do repeatedly. Because Windows 8 is split
between two environments, the Start screen and Windows
Desktop, you may believe that you can run only Start screen
apps from the Start screen and only traditional Windows
applications from the Windows Desktop. But thats not the
case: You can launch both kinds of apps from the Start
screen, as well as common Windows functions such as the
Control Panel.
To close a Start screen app and

return to the Start screen, press
Alt+F4. Or just press
to
switch back to the Start screen,
leaving the app running in the
background.
Adding and removing Start screen tiles

Tiles for Start screen apps that you buy are automatically added to the Start screen. So are Windows 8savvy Windows
Desktop apps such as Office 2013 and Google Chrome. But older Windows apps may need to be added manually. That
means by you.
The App bar (at bottom) for the Start screen has one option: All Apps
14
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 14
11/9/12 1:53 PM

To add apps or other functions to the Start screen, follow these steps for each item:
Open the Start screens App bar

by right-clicking a blank portion
of the Start screen, or pressing
+Z, or using a finger to swipe
up from the bottom edge of the
screen or swipe down from the
top edge. Click or tap the All
Apps icon.
Locate the app or control that

you want to add a tile for on the
Start screen.
When youre finished adding apps, your Start screen

will have grown considerably with all your newly added
destinations.
To get rid of tiles on your Start screen, right-click an
unwanted tile and click Unpin from Start from the App bar,
or on a touchscreen, drag it to the bottom of the screen,
release your finger from the screen, and tap Unpin from
Start.
Right-click the item you want

to appear on the Start screen
and click Pin to Start from the
App bar that appears. On a
touchscreen, drag the item to
the bottom of the screen, release
your finger from the screen, and
tap Pin to Start from the App
bar.
From the App bar, you also can pin apps and
functions to the Windows Desktop taskbar for easy
access. To do so, use the same steps you used for
adding them to the Start screen, but click or tap Pin
to Taskbar instead. This option appears only for apps
and services that can run on the Windows Desktop.
Note that you cant pin Windows Desktop apps to the
Start screen from the Windows Desktop.
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 15
15
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Windows 8 Basics
Arranging and grouping

Start screen tiles
To change the size of a tile:
On
Everyone seems to have a personal style of organizing their

computers desktop and files (including not organizing
them!). So, as youd expect, the Start screen lets you
organize its tiles. But if youve used previous versions of
Windows, OS X, Android, or iOS, youll find that the Start
screen offers some differences that set it apart from those
operating systems old-school approaches.
Like other operating systems, the Windows
8 Start screen lets you rearrange tiles by
dragging them to different locations on the
screen. When you drop a tile on or between
others, they make room for the new tile.
a PC, right-click the tile and click the

Smaller or Larger icon on the App bar. (Wide
tiles have the Smaller option, whereas square
tiles have the Larger option.)
On a touchscreen, drag the tile to the bottom of
the screen, release your finger to open the App

bar, and then tap the Smaller or Larger icon.
rearrange tiles by
dragging them
. . . on the screen
But whats different about the Start screen is

that some tiles those with live previews
can be of two different sizes: a wide rectangle and a smaller
square. Other tiles are always squares.
The Start screens tiles can become hard to

navigate as you add apps because the set of
tiles to scroll through gets longer and longer.
It sure would be nice to be able to group
them . . . and you can! (However, you cant
create folders of application tiles, as you
can in other operating systems and on the
Windows Desktop.)
When first installed, the Windows 8 Start screen includes

two unlabeled groups of tiles, with a narrow space between
the two groups. That small space is how you know where
one group ends and the next begins.
The App bar (at bottom) lets you narrow or widen live tiles. In the tiles area, note the wider gap between tiles that separates tile groups.
16
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 16
11/9/12 1:53 PM

Follow these steps to create and name a group of tiles:
To create a new group, drag and

drop a tile into the gap between
two existing groups. A vertical
bar appears, letting you know
a new group will be created in
that space.
To add more tiles to your newly

created group, drag and drop
additional tiles into the group.
You can drag the tiles within
the group to arrange them as
desired.
(Optional) To name a group, in

the group view right-click the
group you want to name and
click the Name Group icon on
the App bar. On a touchscreen,
drag the group to the bottom
of the screen and then tap
Name Group. When the Name
text field appears, type a name
and then click or tap the Name
button.
Rearrange the groups as desired.

If youre using a mouse, click
the icon in the Start screens
bottom-right corner to switch
to a reduced-size group view
of the tiles, or if youre using
a touchscreen, use the pinch
gesture to get that view. Drag
from anywhere in a group to
move in the entire group.
Return from the group view

to the standard Start screen by
clicking in the screen or using
the expand gesture.
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 17
17
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Windows 8 Basics
Customizing the Start Screen

In addition to arranging
your tiles, Windows 8 lets
you adjust other aspects
of the Start screen, such
as the background,
color scheme, and text
size. You do so via the
Settings charm.
After clicking or tapping
the Settings charm, click
the words Change PC
Settings. In the window
that appears, a list of
panes appears at left;
the settings for each
pane appear at right,
and youll likely have to
scroll to see them all.
The Start Screen options in the Personalize pane of the PC Settings window
The Personalize pane is where you set the
color scheme and background for the Start

screen, change the background image for the
lock screen, and select what image to use with
your user account.
The Personalize pane is pretty simple to use:
Click the squares for the color scheme and
background pattern you want. Thats it as
in all Start screen settings, theres no OK or
Apply or Done button to click or tap, because
all changes are applied immediately.
The Lock Screen pane is a little more com-
plex, but not much. Click or tap an image to use

as the lock screen background or click Browse
to choose your own. But theres more! You
may need to scroll down a bit to see the Lock
Screen Apps section, where you specify which
apps show notifications in the lock screen.
By default, Mail, Calendar, and Messaging are
already configured to do so. Click a + icon to
add an app whose notifications you want to
see in the lock screen; you can have as many
as six. To remove an app from the lock screen
notifications, click its icon and then choose
Dons Show Quick Status Here from the menu
that appears.
The Lock Screen options in the Personalize pane of the PC Settings window
18
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 18
11/9/12 1:53 PM

The
Notifications pane lets you specify

which applications can display notifications
in the upper right of the Start screen and the
Windows Desktop. Here, you use the On/Off
switches to set whether notifications appear
in Windows 8 and/or on the lock screen, as
well as whether a tone plays with them. Below
those three options, you select which applications are allowed to notify you.
The
Ease of Access pane lets you make

changes to appearance. Its aimed at users with
disabilities, but one option may tempt many
users: Make Everything on Your Screen Bigger.
The Start screen environment has big tiles, but
often text is hard to read for older eyes. This

setting makes everything bigger, as it promises,
but in doing so it can change how settings and
other charms display: Instead of showing a list
of panes at left and the options at right, the
magnified charms may show one or the other,
depending on your screen resolution. If you
see just the list of panes, click or tap one to
see its settings, but the list is gone. To get back,
click or tap the icon of a left arrow in a circle at
the upper left of the screen. Unfortunately, the
Make Everything on Your Screen Bigger option
is disabled on many tablets, which could really
use this option given their relatively small
screens.
The Notifications pane of the PC Settings window
With Make Everything on Your Screen Bigger enabled, Windows 8 may have to separate the list of panes from a
panes options on a smaller display, as shown at right
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 19
19
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Windows 8 Basics
Working with Charms

C
harms are a Windows 8 feature designed to give
you quick access to commonly used functions. You
can open the Charms bar in a few different ways.
Press +C if youre using a physical keyboard. If youre
using a mouse, hover the mouse pointer over either of the
right hot corners until the charm icons appear and then
move the mouse into
the Charms bar to
have its background
turn black and the
charms labels to
appear. On a touchscreen, swipe from
the right edge of the
screen to open the
Charms bar.
The Search charm (at left) and the Settings charm (at right)
Windows 8 makes five charms available on the Charms bar:

Search: Click or tap this charm to search
through whatever application is active
onscreen. To expand your search, choose one
of the other search locations: Apps, Settings,
or Files. Or choose another of the apps listed.
Shortcut: Press
+Q or, to do a file search,
+F.
Share: Click or tap this charm to share whats
currently in your application, assuming it is a
sharable item. When viewing a web page, for
example, the Share charm lets you choose Mail
to e-mail the pages link to a friend. Use the
Share pane in the Settings charms PC Settings
to specify which apps appear here. Shortcut:
Press +H.
Start: Click or tap this charm to cycle through

open applications and the Start screen, as
described earlier. Shortcut: Press +Tab.
Devices: Click or tap this charm to send your
current screens information to another device,
such as a printer, second monitor, or perhaps
a phone. The Devices option lists only devices
that are currently connected with your computer and able to receive the screens information. Shortcut: Press +K.
Settings: Click or tap this charm to tweak your
computers six major settings by clicking or tapping the desired settings icon: Wi-Fi/Network,
Volume, Screen, Notifications, Power, and
Keyboard/Language. Click or tap Change PC
Settings to adjust other settings, such as notifications, background, privacy, user accounts,
and Windows update. Shortcut: Press +I.
20
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 20
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Working with Charms

The following three charms vary their options based on
what app is currently open onscreen:
that nothing is available to be shared. Likewise,

whether the Start screen or the Windows
Desktop is active, it notes that nothing is
sharable.
Search: When a Start screen app is onscreen,
by default it searches that app. Whether the

Start screen or the Windows Desktop is active,
by default it searches for apps. In all cases, you
can always choose to search the PC, the web,
or a specific app instead from the charm.
Settings: When a Start screen app or the Start
Share:
When a Start screen app is onscreen

and sharable content is selected or active, it lets
you share that content via compatible services
such as e-mail and social networking. When no
compatible content is active, the charm notes
screen is active, the top of the charm shows

links specific to that app or the Start screen;
tap a link to open a pane showing available
settings. For the Windows Desktop, the charm
shows three links that open various parts of
the Control Panel: Control Panel (the top level
showing all control panels), Personalization,
and PC Info.
Time-saving shortcuts in Windows 8

Action
Shortcut
Go to Start screen
Gesture
Swipe from right edge, tap Start
Switch among active apps
+Tab
Swipe from left edge
Switch to Windows Desktop
+D
None
Open the App and Control bars
+Z
Swipe from top or bottom edge
Open Charms bar
+C
Swipe from right edge
Open Search charm
+Q
Swipe from right edge, tap Search
Open Search charm to Files
+F
None
Open Search charm to Settings
+W
None
Open Share charm
+H
Swipe from right edge, tap Share
Open PC Settings
+I
None
Open Windows Desktop
+D
None
Switch to Windows Desktop
+B
None
Open File Explorer
+E
None
Open Power User menu
+X
None
Reduce Start screen app to right side
+. (period)
None
Reduce Start screen app to left side
+Shift+. (period)
None
Move Start screen to next display*
+PgDn
None
+PgUp
Ctrl+C
None
Move Start screen to previous display*

Copy
Paste
Cut
Zoom in
Zoom out
Lock the screen
Ctrl+V
Ctrl+X
None
None
+L
Tap and hold on image or text selection

handle, choose Copy
Tap and hold in destination, choose Paste
None
Expand thumb and forefinger
Pinch thumb and forefinger
None
* For PCs with multiple monitors in use
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 21
21
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Windows 8 Basics
Working with the

Windows Desktop
IN THIS ARTICLE
Whats different on the Windows Desktop Opening the Windows Desktop

Touring the taskbar and application window Sizing and moving windows
The Windows Desktop
he Start screen is new to Windows, so its a little

mysterious. But if youve used previous versions of
Windows and most people have the Windows
Desktop part of Windows 8 will be very familiar. Its basically Windows 7 with a few changes:
There
is no Start menu. The only way to

quickly access items when in the Windows
Desktop is to pin them to the taskbar at the
bottom of the screen after youve opened
them. (Right-click or tap and hold an open
applications icon to get a menu that lets you
pin it to the taskbar.)
22
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 22
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Working with the Windows Desktop

The File Explorer, the file manager called
Windows Explorer in Windows 7, is always

pinned to the taskbar. You can navigate
your PCs files the normal way, through the file
hierarchy and search capabilities. Also use File
Explorer to find your applications not pinned
to the taskbar.
Internet Explorer 10 is also always pinned
to the taskbar. Note that the IE 10 version in

the Windows Desktop is not the same as the
IE 10 in the Start screen; the Windows Desktop
one has more capabilities, such as full support
for Oracle Java and Adobe Flash.
When using a PC tablet, you usually must

activate the onscreen keyboard whenever
you want to use it. The keyboard doesnt
usually automatically appear when you tap a
text field, as it always does in the Start screen
portion of Windows 8. Windows 8savvy
applications such as Office 2013 and Google
Chrome do open the keyboard for you in the
Windows Desktop when you tap a text field.

Tap the Keyboard button on the taskbar to
open the onscreen keyboard yourself, and tap
its Close box to hide it.
The
left hot corners used with a mouse

work differently in the Windows Desktop
than in the Start screen. The bottom-left hot
corner only switches you to the Start screen;
you cant use it to switch among recent apps
or open the Recent Apps bar only the topleft hot corner can do that in the Windows
Desktop.
In
the C: drive, you may notice two

Windows folders Program Files and
Program Files (x86) instead of the
Program Files folder in previous versions
of Windows. The Program Files folder contains Windows 8 native applications, whereas
the Program Files (x86) folder contains apps
designed only for Windows 7 and earlier.
Heres how to use the hot corners in the Windows Desktop:
Switch to the Start screen by

hovering your pointer over
the lower-left corner and then
clicking the thumbnail that
appears.
Switch to the next recently open

app by hovering your pointer
over the upper-right corner and
then clicking the thumbnail that
appears.
(Optional) Pull out the

thumbnail that appears until it
replaces the Windows Desktop
with the thumbnails app and
then release the mouse button.
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 23
23
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Windows 8 Basics
Getting to the Windows Desktop

So how do you get to the Windows Desktop from the Start
screen? There are several methods:
With a mouse, hover over one of the left hot

corners, pull out the thumbnail that appears,
and drag it back to the left side to display
the Recent Apps bar; then click the Windows
Desktops thumbnail. On a touchscreen, you
get the thumbnail by sliding in from the left
edge of the screen.
Use
the keyboard shortcut

+D to launch
the Windows Desktop or +E to launch the
Windows Desktop with the File Explorer file
manager active.
Click or tap the Desktop tile.

If you previously opened
the Windows
Desktop and then moved to the Start screen or
a Start screen app, you can switch back to the
Desktop through one of these methods:
Use the Start charm or press
+Tab to cycle
among the Start screen and open apps,
including the Desktop (if its open).
A tablet running Windows RT has only a limited version

of the Windows Desktop. It can run only the Start screen
part of Windows 8 and Start screen applications, as
well as a special version of Office 2013 and IE 10 that
Microsoft pre-installs in Windows RT tablets. You can
also use File Explorer to navigate files.
Touring the Taskbar

The taskbar is the command center for the Windows
Desktop. Its where you can most easily work with
applications, and it gives you quick access to various
services such as network settings, date and time, Windows
Update, and other Windows capabilities.
Any running Windows Desktop apps (such as Word or
Windows Media Player) display their icon on the taskbar.
Click or tap the icon to switch to that app; if the app is open,
clicking or tapping it minimizes the app (leaves it running
but hides it). Likewise, click or tap an icon in the right end
of the taskbar to open its service, such as changing network
settings, adjusting speaker volume, or opening the Action
Center to check for system updates.
Heres what else the taskbar can do:
A live application preview
Live application preview: Hover the mouse
pointer or quickly tap the icon to see a preview

of the apps current status, if its running.
Pinned to Taskbar: You can keep app icons
permanently available for future use by pinning them to the taskbar. To pin an app to the
taskbar, right-click the icon on the taskbar (on
a touchscreen, tap and hold the icon) and from
the menu that appears choose Pin to Taskbar.
(Choose Unpin from Taskbar to remove it.)
An applications contextual menu: Rightclick or tap and hold an app icon to get a
contextual menu with available options
called a jump list for that app, such as to
switch to a specific application window, run a
task, or close (quit) the app. (This is the same
menu where you pin or unpin an app.) Note
that not all apps have jump list options.
On a touchscreen, it can be hard to open an applications contextual menu by tapping and holding or to see its
preview by tapping it. Youre better off using a physical mouse for such actions.
24
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 24
11/9/12 1:53 PM

toolbar items to the taskbar such as for opening recently open web links, the onscreen keyboard, and the desktop (which hides all open
apps). You also can set how windows display
on the desktop: side by side (stacked) or overlapping (cascading).
An applications contextual menu
Icon
Tray Settings menu: Click or tap the

up-pointing triangle icon on the taskbar to get
a list of hidden icons and to get the Customize
option that lets you change what displays in the
icon tray.
The Power User menu
Power User menu: Hover the mouse pointer
over the lower-left corner until the Start screen

thumbnail appears and then right-click it to
open the new Power User menu, which lets
you quickly open pro-level features such as the
command prompt, administrator tools, and the
Device Manager.
The Icon Tray Settings menu
Desktop Settings menu: Right-click or tap

and hold on the desktop right above the taskbar
to open the Desktop Settings menu of common
display settings, such as changing the screen
resolution, adjusting how icons display and file
names are sorted, and opening the Personalize
control panel to change the desktops look.
The Toolbar Settings menu
The Desktop Settings menu
Toolbar Settings menu: Right-click or tap and

hold on an empty areas in the taskbar to open
the Toolbar Settings menu that lets you add
You can customize the look and feel of the Windows

Desktop. For example, to change the background,
choose Personalize from the Desktop Settings menu
to open the Personalization control panel. From
there, you can choose an existing theme from those
displayed, or you can scroll down to find more
options.
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 25
25
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Windows 8 Basics
Touring the Application Window

When you run an application or Windows service in
the Windows Desktop environment, youll see it in an
application window, which provides both standard controls
and additional controls for each application.
Scan the edges of application windows because
important information and functions are often pushed
to these edges around the main content area.
Heres a quick review of the standard controls:
Quick
Access toolbar: This gives you fast

access to common operations, such as saving
a document. This toolbar is not present in all
windows and may feature different functions,
depending on the window.
Title bar: The top line of the window contains
the title of the desktop program youre using.

When you use a program to create a document,
the name of the document also appears in the
title bar.
26
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 26
11/9/12 1:53 PM

Minimize: This shrinks or hides the windows
contents. The program that the window

contains is still running and open, but the
window is out of sight. Youll still see the
programs icon in the taskbar. To restore the
window, click or tap its icon on the taskbar.
Ribbon: Below the title bar, starting at the left
edge of the window, is the Ribbon, a toolbar

organized as tabbed panes that provides access
to many functions via menus and icons. The
tabs appear across the top of the Ribbon; click
the tab label to switch to it. Although Ribbons
vary among programs, most Ribbons have File,
Home, and View tabs. (In Windows 8, File
Explorer now has a Ribbon, but its hidden by
default: Click or tap a tab label to open it.)
Maximize/Restore: If
the buttons icon is a

single square, its the Maximize button, and
clicking or tapping it fills the screen with the
contents of the window. If the icon shows two
squares, its the Restore button, and clicking or
tapping it returns the window to its previous
size
Close: Click or tap this button to close (quit)

the application. You can also press Alt+F4.
You can press + to maximize the current window.

And you can press
+ to restore a maximized
window or to minimize a window that is not
maximized.
Status bar: Along the bottom edge of the

window, some programs display information
about the window or its contents in a singleline status bar. (File Explorer does not have a
status bar.)
Display or hide the Ribbons tabs by pressing Ctrl+F1

or clicking or tapping the ^ icon on the far right, next
to the Help icon (the question mark). Each time you do
so, the Ribbons tabs switch between being displayed
and hidden. The tab labels always remain visible.
Resizing and Arranging Windows

You can move a window on the desktop by dragging the
title bar with a mouse or, on a touchscreen, with your
finger. Likewise, you can resize a window by dragging any
of its sides or corners to both resize and reshape it in the
direction you drag the side or corner.
But Windows also offers other methods. One is called
snapping a window. Drag a window to the left or right
edge of the screen. When the mouse or your finger touches
the edge of the screen, youll see an outline on the screen.
Release the window, and it resizes automatically to fill that
half of the screen. You can also press + to snap to the
left side or press + to snap to the right side.
Here are a few more sizing tricks you can try:
Drag a snapped window by the title bar away

from the edge of the screen to return the
window to its previous size.
Drag
a window (snapped or not) to the top

edge of the screen to maximize the window.
A snapped window on the left and a window being snapped on the right
Drag the title bar of a maximized window away

from the top to restore it to its previous size.
Dummies.com
04_9781118484791-ch01.indd 27
27
11/9/12 1:53 PM
Apps and Files
Using Start Screen Apps

IN THIS ARTICLE
Opening
and closing Start screen apps Accessing options and settings in apps
The Start screens included apps
ust as Windows
8 has the Start
screen
and
Windows Desktop
environments, so too
does it have apps that
run in these respective
environments. Windows
8 comes with a bunch of
Start screen apps, and
you can add more from
the Windows Store, an
app that is the only place
you can buy and download Start screen apps
from.
The Start screen shows
tiles for each Start screen
app that is installed. It
may also have tiles for
Windows Desktop apps
that come installed on a
new computer. You can
see even more tiles if you
open the App bar in the
Start screen (right-click the
bottom of the screen or
swipe up from the bottom of
the screen) and click or tap
the All Apps icon. This All
Apps view of the Start screen
shows tiles for a variety of
Windows Desktop apps and
services such as Calculator, the
Control Panel, Notepad, and
Remote Desktop Connection.
To see the administrator tools specialty apps that power users often use from
the Windows Desktop in the Start screen, open the Settings charm, click or tap Tiles
at the top of the Charms bar, and then set the Show Administrative Tools switch to
Yes. Click outside the Settings charm to close it.
28
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 28
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Opening and Closing Apps

Heres how to open an app from its Start screens tile:
app toward the screens bottom. When the mouse reaches

the screens bottom edge, youve closed the app; release
your finger from the screen. You can also press Alt+F4 if
you have a keyboard.
Mouse: Click the tile.

Keyboard: Press the
arrow keys until a box

surrounds the desired tile. Then press the Enter
key.
Touchscreen: Tap the tile.

To close an app youre currently working in, point the
mouse at the screens top edge. When the mouse pointer
turns into a hand, hold down the mouse button and drag the
On a touchscreen, drag your finger from the top edge of

the screen all the way to the bottom edge; the apps screen
should shrink about halfway through. When you reach the
bottom, the app is tossed away and closed. (The Alt+F4
shortcut and the throwaway gesture tricks work on the
Windows Desktop, as well.)
Working with App Options

In the Start screen environment, all apps run in fullscreen mode, so theres
nothing to distract you. But
when you need to work on
the applications settings or
additional options, you can
summon them. To do so, rightclick in any empty portion of
the app (outside any controls
or fields) or swipe up from the
bottom edge of the screen or
down from the top edge of the
screen.
The App and

Control bars
Almost all Start screen apps
have the App bar at the bottom
of the screen (the Store app is
an exception). The App bar
displays one or more icons that
you can click or tap to open a
menu, a dialog box, or another
interface element that exposes
their capabilities.
In addition, some apps also
have the Control bar at the
top of the screen, which offers
even more capabilities, usually
to help you navigate. It displays
when you open the App bar.
For example, the Start screen
version of Internet Explorer 10
uses the Control bar to show
recently open web pages so
The Weather app (top) and Internet Explorer 10 app (bottom) with their App and Control bars visible
Dummies.com
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 29
29
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Apps and Files

you can quickly reopen them. And the Weather app uses
the Control bar to provide navigation to different features
within the app.
The Settings charm

Theres one more place you may find app options: the
Settings charm. When you open the Settings charm while
an app is onscreen, the Settings charm shows any links to
options for that app at top. Click or tap a link to open its
corresponding settings pane. For example, the Weather
apps Preferences pane lets you choose between Celsius
and Fahrenheit and specify whether your search history for
locations is saved (for easy access later to those locations).
And IE 10s Internet Explorer Settings pane lets you delete
the browser history, control whether your location is shared
with websites, set the zoom level, and enable rightward
scrolling to flip to the next page in a multipage web page.
Three charms usually provide custom options

when youre in an app. The Search charm lets
you search within the apps contents, as well
as search the web, your PC, or other apps
contents. The Share charm lets you share the
apps current information via e-mail or social
networking, such as for text, URLs, and images
(in apps that support sharing). The Settings
charm lets you set preferences and other
behaviors for the current app.
All apps Settings charms have a Permissions link that

shows the resources (such as location and access to your
contacts) that the app uses, along with switches that let
you disable such permissions for that app. Note that
disabling permissions can interfere with the apps ability
to function properly, but some apps may be accessing
personal information they dont really need, such as to
send ads to your friends or track your location to build
a profile of your activities, so its always a good idea to
check the permissions for each new app you install.
Navigating within Apps

When you use the scroll bar to move to the right or, on
a touchscreen, when you swipe to the right, many apps
reveal more information about their current content.
(Depending on the screen resolution and display settings,
you may see part of the adjacent information onscreen to
help you realize it exists.) Swipe to the left to scroll back.
For example, scrolling sideways in Internet Explorer 10
moves you among open browser windows, and doing so
in the Weather app shows you more details for the current
location, such as historical weather data and screens that
show global weather. Scroll or swipe sideways to move
back and forth through this additional information. Whether
and how apps use this additional screen real estate varies
from app to app.
Many applications display tiles or menus to open
additional content. For example, the People apps
Whats New pane shows tiles for recently received
tweets and Facebook posts. Click or tap a content
tile or a menu item to open the content. To get
back to that menu or tile list, click or tap the leftarrow icon in the upper left of the screen; its
essentially a Back button.
Scrolling through an apps extended screen
Running Multiple Apps

The Start screen is designed to run one app at a time. Well,
not quite: Multiple apps can be running, but you work with
only one at a time due to the full-screen nature of Start
screen apps. Well, again not quite. Windows 8 provides a
way to display two apps on screen at the same time. You
need a physical keyboard to make this work, but its quite
easy to do: Press +. (period) to reduce the current app
to a strip on the right side of the screen. (Or you can press
+Shift+. [period] instead to reduce it to the left side.) Then
go to the Start screen to open a desired app (including the
Windows Desktop) to have it appear onscreen next to the
other apps strip.
30
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 30
11/9/12 12:56 PM

You can use both apps when theyre side
by side, and if you want to make the
smaller window larger, drag the dividing
line between the two apps or press
+. (period) or +Shift+. (period) again
to change the view: It first reverses the
two windows sizes and, if pressed again,
makes the larger window full-screen
again.
Running two apps side by side
Finding the Apps You Want to Use

Your Start screen will change as you add more programs
and apps to your computer. Thats why the Start screen
on your friends computer, as well as in the figures shown
here, is probably arranged differently than your computers
Start screen.
You can scroll through the Start screen until your eagle eyes
spot the tile you need, and then you can pounce on it with
a quick click or tap. But when the thrill of the hunt wanes,
Windows 8 offers several shortcuts for finding apps and
programs hidden inside a tile-stuffed Start screen:
Mouse:
Mouse users can right-click on a

blank portion of the Start screen. The App
bar appears on the screen showing an icon
named All Apps. Click the All Apps icon to see
an alphabetical listing of all your computers
apps and programs. Click the desired app or
program to open it.
Touchscreen:
On a touchscreen, slide your

finger up from the screens bottom edge. When
the App bar appears, tap the All Apps icon to
see an alphabetical list of all your apps and
programs.
Keyboard: While looking at the Start screen,
users of physical keyboards can simply begin

typing the name of the desired app or program,
like this: facebook. As you type, Windows 8
lists all the apps matching what youve typed
so far, eventually narrowing down the search
to the runaway.
No matter what input devices you use, you also can open
the Search charm, click or tap the Apps icon, and enter the
desired apps name in the Search box; then press Enter or
click or tap the Search button (magnifying-glass icon). Click

or tap the apps icon from the results pane to open it.
As you open applications, how do you switch among them
from the Start screen? After all, there is no taskbar of open
applications as in the Windows Desktop. There are several
ways, which work both on the Start screen and on the
Windows Desktop:
Press
+Tab on your keyboard to switch to

the next open application; keep pressing the
key to cycle through the open apps.
Press
or click or tap the Start charm to

switch between the Start screen and the lastused app.
Open the Recent Apps bar to see a list of
icons for all open apps. The Recent Apps

bar is, essentially, a taskbar that works in
both the Start screen and Windows Desktop
environments showing all open apps, whether
the Start screen or Windows Desktop. (The
Windows Desktops taskbar shows only non
Start screen apps.)
To open this bar, just press +Tab, hold ,
and then click or tap the desired app from the
bar that appears on the left side of the screen.
You can also hover the mouse pointer over
the upper-left hot corner, or you can swipe
from the left edge and then drag back without
releasing your finger from the screen. A
thumbnail appears of the next open item. Pull
it out from the edge a little and then drag it
back to the edge to open the Recent Apps bar.
Dummies.com
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 31
31
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Apps and Files
The Apps That Come with the Start Screen

The following Start screen apps are preinstalled with
Windows 8, whether you get a new PC or upgrade from a
previous version of Windows:
Bing: This app lets you do a basic web search.

Frankly, you get more search controls if you
go to www.bing.com or www.google.com in
Internet Explorer.
Calendar: This lets you add your appointments
News: Visit here to read the news of the day,

compiled from various news services.
People: The beauty of the People app comes from
its openness. After you enter your accounts

Facebook, Twitter, Google, and others the
People app grabs all your contacts, as well as
their information, for easy access in other apps,
such as Mail and Messaging.
or grab them automatically from calendars

already created through accounts with Google
or Hotmail.
Photos:
Camera: This lets you snap photos with your
Reader:
computers built-in camera or an attached

camera.
Desktop: Choose this to fetch the traditional

Windows Desktop.
Finance: This live tile shows a 30-minute delay
of the current Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P stock

indices. The app itself shows more-detailed
charts and current financial news, tracks
specific stocks you enter, and lets you convert
currencies and check interest rates.
Games: Designed for Xbox 360 owners, this

app lets you see your achievements, friends,
and played games. Plus, you can watch game
trailers and buy new games for your console.
Internet
Explorer: The Start screen miniversion of Internet Explorer browses the web
full-screen. Note that it does not support plugins such as Adobe AIR; use the full version
of IE 10 in the Windows Desktop for such
complete browsing capabilities. (Adobe Flash
is supported, but theres no plug-in that you
need to install: Microsoft has folded Adobes
Flash into IE 10 itself.)
Mail:
This app lets you send and receive

e-mail. If you enter a Hotmail/Outlook.com
or Google account, the Mail app sets itself
up automatically, stocking your People apps
address list from your contacts as well.
Maps: Handy for trip planning, the Maps app

brings up a version of Microsoft Bing Maps.
Messaging:
This app lets you send text

messages to friends through Facebook,
Microsofts Instant Messenger, and other
systems.
This app displays photos stored on

your computer, as well as on accounts you
may have on Facebook, Flickr, or SkyDrive.
This handy app reads documents
stored in the Adobe Portable Document Format
(PDF). It jumps into action when you try to
open any file stored in that format, whether
from a website or an e-mail attachment.
SkyDrive:
This app provides access to

Microsofts cloud storage service, which lets
you store files online for access from any
computer, tablet, and smartphone that can
access SkyDrive and for which you enter your
SkyDrive credentials. Its similar to the popular
Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive services.
Sports: You can find sports news and scores
here, as well as a way to add listings for your

favorite sports teams.
Store: The Windows Store is the only way to
add more Start screen apps to your Start screen.

(You can buy apps for the Windows Desktop
in the usual ways, such as buying installation
discs or downloads from application makers.)
Travel: Resembling a travel agents billboard,
this app lists travel hot spots, complete with

maps, panoramic photos, reviews, and links for
booking flights and hotels.
Video: This app provides a video rental store

that you can use to download movies and TV
shows from, but you can also play any videos
youve added to your computer.
Weather:
This weather station forecasts a

weeks worth of weather in your area, but
only if you grant it permission to access your
location information. (Unless your computer
has a GPS Global Positioning System the
app narrows down your location by closest city
rather than street address.)
Music: This app plays music stored on your

computer. But Microsoft hopes youll buy
music from its store, as well.
32
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 32
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Getting Apps from the Windows Store
Getting Apps from the

Windows Store
T
he big change in
Windows 8 is the introduction of the Start
screen environment that runs
that new breed of app optimized for touchscreens and
simple, full-screen display on
any device. Theres only one
place to get Start screen apps:
the Windows Store, which you
access using the Store app on
the Start screen. (Sorry, but you
cant buy Windows Desktop
apps there.)
To access the Windows Store,

you need to have a Microsoft
account set up. If you signed in
to your PC with a local account,
a banner appears when you try
to install or buy an app from
the store, asking you to sign in
with your Microsoft account.
If you dont have a Microsoft
account, you can create one
from that banner.
When you enter the Windows
Store, you see promoted apps
in the Spotlight section, as
well as tiles that open lists of
apps: All Stars (most popular),
Top Free, Rising Stars, and
New Releases. If you scroll
to the right, youll see groups
for various categories such as
Games and Productivity. Sadly,
theres no way to jump quickly
to a desired category, but
you can search within the
Windows Store by using the
Search charm or just by typing
a name in the app with a physical
keyboard.
The Windows Store (top) and the details for the Wikipedia app (bottom)
Dummies.com
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 33
33
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Apps and Files

In any category, tap an app to get more details on it. Each app
has three panes you can switch among: Overview; Details
(including any release notes, supported PC processors, and
supported languages); and Reviews. To the left of these
panes is a summary box with user ratings, an Install button,
a list of permissions the app has on your PCs information,
the apps size, the app developer, and its age rating.
If an app appears with a white background, you

have already installed it. You also can see a list of
apps purchased through your account by clicking or
tapping Your Apps on the Control bar. You can install
those apps youve purchased but havent installed, or
you can clear those you no longer want on the Stores
App bar.
To buy apps, you need more than a Microsoft account: You

need to give Microsoft your PayPal bill-payment account,
if you have one, or credit card information to charge your
purchases against (its required even for free apps). When in
the Store app, use the Settings charm to add or modify your
payment options by clicking or tapping Accounts at the top
and completing the relevant payment details.
If you get an app and you dont want it, go to the Start
screen and uninstall it by right-clicking its tile or, on a
touchscreen PC, by dragging its tile to the bottom of
the screen, to open the App bar. Then click or tap the
Uninstall icon. The app is removed from all computers
that are tied to the same Microsoft account.
The Settings charm for the Store app also provides the
following controls specific to the app:
Your
Account pane: A list of PCs youve

purchased apps from (you can install apps on
as many as five PCs linked to your Microsoft
account); you can remove those bought from
a specific PC.
Preferences pane: Options to favor apps in
your preferred languages and to favor apps

that include accessibility features.
App
Updates: Options to automatically

update apps, check for updates, and force all
purchased apps to sync to the current PC.
The Windows Stores Settings charm
34
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 34
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Working with Windows Desktop Apps
Working with Windows

Desktop Apps
IN THIS ARTICLE
Finding
and opening applications Introducing Windows 8style apps

The applications that come with the Windows Desktop
he Start screen may make you work with apps in

new ways, so the Windows Desktop may come
as a relief: Its apps
are the familiar Windows
apps youve been running in Windows XP,
Vista, and 7. You install
them from CDs, DVDs,
or downloaded installation files as you always
have. And they have
the familiar user interface from the earlier
Windows versions.
If youve switched
from Windows XP to
Windows 8, note that
the appearance of
the windows, such
as the title bar and
menus, may have
changed a little.
Also, newer applications use the Ribbon
interface below menus or instead of menus. But if youve
used Windows 7, youll see very few changes in Windows
8 when it comes to Windows Desktop apps theres
essentially no difference other than removing most 3D
effects from application frames and buttons.
Accessing Applications
The biggest change in the Windows Desktop is the
disappearance of the Start menu, which in previous
versions of Windows provided easy access to your installed
applications. To open applications in the Windows Desktop,
youll need to use one of these techniques instead:
Documents folder: In File Explorer (formerly
called Windows Explorer), navigate to your

Documents folder or to a folder that contains
a file you want to work with, and then
double-click or double-tap it to open it in its
application.
Dummies.com
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 35
35
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Apps and Files

Program Files (x86) folder: In File Explorer,
navigate to the Program Files (x86) folder in

the C: drive to see available applications, and
then double-click or double-tap the desired
application to open it.
Windows
Desktop taskbar: Pin running

apps to the Windows Desktop taskbar so they
remain available whenever you want to run
them.
You press
+1,
+2, and
+3, respectively, to
switch to the first, second, and third open apps on
the Windows Desktop taskbar, respectively. You also
can simply click or tap an apps icon on the taskbar
to switch to it.
Start screen: From the Start screen, open the
App bar and click or tap All Apps. In the screen

that appears, locate a Windows Desktop application, right-click it (or, on a touchscreen, drag
it to the App bar and release it), and click or
tap Pin to Start. This lets you launch the application without first switching to the Windows
Desktop. (Some Windows Desktop apps automatically add their tiles to the Start screen when
you install them, such as Google Chrome and
Microsoft Office 2013.)
Many applications on the Windows Desktop dont

automatically open the onscreen keyboard on a PC
tablet when you tap a text field. To get the onscreen
keyboard, tap the Keyboard icon in the taskbar.
Introducing Windows 8Style Apps

The old, familiar Windows Desktop applications, such as
Windows Media Player and Acrobat Reader, work essentially
no differently in Windows 8 than in Windows 7. However,
thats not necessarily true when it comes to new software
designed for Windows 8, such as Microsoft Office 2013 (due
for release in early 2013 but available in a preview version
since summer 2012). These Windows 8style applications
run in full-screen mode by default. To get the toolbar,
Ribbon bar, and other controls, you need to switch to the

regular view you know and love from Windows 7.
To do that, click or tap the Exit Full Screen button (the
icon) in the upper right of the screen. To go back to fullscreen view, click or tap the Enter Full Screen button (the
opening-window icon) at the top of the screen.
The full-screen view (left) and the regular view (right) for an example Windows 8style app (PowerPoint 2013)
36
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 36
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Working with Windows Desktop Apps
The Apps You Get with the Windows Desktop

Just as the Start screen comes with a selection of apps
provided by Microsoft, so does the Windows Desktop.
These applications should be familiar because theyre
the same set Microsoft has provided in other versions of
Windows:
Steps
Recorder: A utility that records the

actions you take in the Windows Desktop so
you can play them back to automate tasks you
do frequently. It essentially creates automated
macros from your actions.
Calculator: The name says it all!

Character Map: A utility for inserting special
Sticky Notes: An app that leaves virtual sticky
Command Prompt: A utility that lets you run
Task Manager: A utility that not only shows
symbols and foreign characters into your text.
DOS commands, an obsolete way of interacting

with the PC that only IT people use today.
Internet
Explorer 10 (IE 10): Microsofts

web browser. Note that the Windows Desktop
version supports Java and third-party plug-ins
to extend its capabilities. (These plug-ins also
can create security vulnerabilities, however.)
The Start screen version includes Flash but
doesnt let you add plug-ins.
Math
Input Panel: A floating dialog box

where you can enter mathematical equations
by drawing them and having the panel convert
them to text that you can copy and paste into
documents.
Notepad: Microsofts basic text editor, which
notes on your desktop on which you can type

reminders and other, er, notes.
you whats running on your PC and how

much resources those apps are taking, but also
lets you force-quit applications that are not
responding or that are getting in the way of
other applications being able to run.
Windows
Defender: Microsofts antivirus
application.
Windows
Media Player: Microsofts

application to play music and video files.
WordPad: A lightweight word processor that
can do basic text formatting and work with

Word and RTF (Rich Text Format) files.
XPS
Viewer: A utility that opens Microsofts

own XPS format, a sort-of competitor to
Adobes PDF.
can work with unformatted text files.
Paint: A very basic program for editing photos

and screen images.
Remote
Desktop Connection: A program

that lets someone manage your PC from an
Internet connection. In Windows 8 Pro and
Windows Enterprise, it also lets you manage
other PCs.
Snipping Tool: A utility that lets you capture
all or part of the Windows Desktops screen as

an image file (great for documentation and to
show remote tech support what youre seeing
onscreen). Tip: To capture the whole screen,
whether youre on the Start screen or the
Windows Desktop, press +PrtScr. On some
keyboards, PrtScr may not be its own key
instead it may appear as a label on another
key that requires you also press Fn, such as
+Fn+Insert on a Samsung Slate PC tablet.
Sound
Recorder: A utility that records a

sound file from the PCs internal or external
microphone.
The easiest way to get to these Windows Desktop

applications is through the Start screen. Open the App
bar and click or tap All Apps and then scroll through
the apps to find them. Theyre scattered throughout the
Windows Accessories and Windows System groups,
and IE 10 is in the main applications group.
Many new PCs come with additional apps installed

by the PC maker. Some are useful, but most arent. If
you go to a Microsoft store retail outlet, you can get
PCs without such junkware added; these stores also
offer a $100 service to remove such junkware from
new PCs you bought elsewhere. Also, many PC sellers
offer PCs that, for a relatively low price, add Microsoft
Office.
Dummies.com
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 37
37
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Apps and Files
Choosing between the

Start Screen and Desktop
A
consequence of Windows 8 having two parallel environments (the Start screen and Windows
Desktop) loosely connected via the Start screen and
the charms is that you often have two applications that do
the same thing. For example, you can play videos in the
Start screen via the Video app or in the Windows Desktop
via the Windows Media Player application; music can likely
be played in either the Music app or in Windows Media
Player. (They all access the Videos and Music libraries in the
Windows Desktop.) Likewise, theres the Start screen version of the Internet Explorer 10 browser and the Windows
Desktop version.
If you install Microsoft Office which nearly every PC
has you have two e-mail programs: Mail and Outlook.
And if you use Adobe Reader or Acrobat in the Windows
Desktop, you also have Windows Reader in the Start screen,
which you can use to view PDF files.
You can change the defaults in three ways:
Via the Open With menu: Right-click or tap
and hold a file in File Explorer and choose

Open Withfiletype from the contextual menu
that appears, to choose which app should
always open that type of file when it is doubleclicked or double-tapped.
For an app in the Default Programs con-
trol panel: Open the Default Programs control

panel and click or tap Associate a File Type or
Protocol with a Program. A list of file extensions and their default applications appears at
left; select the one you whose default application you want to change, click or tap Change
Program, and click or tap the new default app
in the list that appears. Close the control panel
when done.
That duality can be frustrating and can even cause some

practical issues. For example, the Start screens Mail app on
a PC tablet often wont connect to corporate e-mail because
corporate Exchange servers usually require mobile devices
such as tablets to have encryption, which older PC tablets
dont support. But that same unencrypted tablet is able to
connect when you use Outlook instead on the Windows
Desktop, because corporate servers see Windows Desktop
as if it were any old PC, and thus make it exempt from
the encryption requirement. (It makes no sense to require
encryption on only some types of devices, but sadly this is
a common setup in large businesses.)
The surest way to run the application you want is to launch
it directly, either in the Start screen or Windows Desktop.
But if you double-click a file in File Explorer or in an e-mail
or other message, Windows 8 will open whatever app it has
decided is the right one including a Start screen app instead
of the Windows Desktop app. For several file types, such as
music, documents, image, and video files, Windows 8 asks the
first time you double-click or double-tap a file of that type
which app you want to use as the default.
Change which app opens a file type in the Default Programs control panel.
For
a file extension in the Default

Programs control panel: Open the Default
Programs control panel and click or tap Set
Your Program Defaults. A list of apps appears
at left; select the one you want to be the default
for all compatible files and click or tap Set This
Program as Default. Close the control panel
when youre done.
38
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 38
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Working with Files
Working with Files

IN THIS ARTICLE
How
applications access files Where files are stored Finding files
erhaps youve noticed that there are

no files
or folders on the Start
screen. For example, when you
snap a photo using
the PCs camera in
the Camera app,
theres no folder
displayed containing it. When you
want to play music
in the Music app or
attach a file to an
e-mail in Mail, you
get a list of files, but
you cant navigate to
other folders or disks.
The Start screen and
Windows Desktop
may be separate
environments, but one
thing they share is the
Windows file system
that is, the files and
folders you know from
File Explorer found on
the Windows Desktop.
Start screen apps typically store and access files in predetermined
folders, such as the My Music folder in the Libraries section of
File Explorer for music files, the My Pictures folder for screen
captures and photos taken with the PCs camera, and the My
Videos folder for videos taken with the camera. (These folders,
along with their public counterparts Public Music, Public
Pictures, and Public Videos, comprise the Music, Pictures, and
Videos libraries, respectively.)
Windows Desktop apps work with files as they have in
previous versions of Windows, typically through the Open and
Save As dialog boxes that can navigate through the PCs disks
and folders. You access these dialog boxes from the File menu
that appears at the top of most Windows apps.
Some applications designed for Windows

Vista and 7 hide the menu bar that contains
the File menu option and use icons instead on
the toolbar or Ribbon. But they usually have
an option to display the menus if you prefer:
Press Alt to temporarily display the menu bar
or choose OrganizeLayoutShow Menu Bar
from the toolbar to permanently display the
menu bar in the current application.
Dummies.com
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 39
39
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Apps and Files
The Basics of Files

Everything inside your computer is stored on a disk. Your
computer has a primary disk, formally called the internal
hard disk. You may see this disk referred to as the C: drive;
Windows usually displays it as Local Disk (C:). (The terms
drive and disk are interchangeable.)
When you save a document, you create a file on a disk.
Many other files on the disk belong to the programs you use,
including the thousands of files that make up Windows 8.
Disks are organized into folders, which are containers for
files. Folders can hold folders, which are referred to as
subfolders. Windows 8 comes set up with several folders to
help you organize your files by type. For example, all your
photos go into the Pictures folder, and all your documents
go into the Documents folder. Windows stores these folders
inside the Libraries folder, and it provides quick access to
them in the Navigation pane the left side of File Explorer.
If you start with the C: drive in File Explorer, youll see
several folders:
Windows,
which holds the components of

Windows itself; you should leave this folder
and its contents alone.
Program
Files, which holds Start screen

apps, and Program Files (x86), which holds
Windows Desktop apps.
My Videos, which is where movies (such as

videos taken on the PC or downloaded from
a video store or website) are saved.
Getting fast access to folders

Note that you get quick access to several of these folders
in the Navigation pane on the left side of the File Explorer
application window. In its Favorites section are quick links
to Desktop and Downloads, as well as to Recent Places,
which opens a list of recently used folders. In its Libraries
section are quick links to the My Documents, My Music,
My Pictures, and My Videos folders, though the word My is
omitted in those links. If you have multiple disks, including
thumb drives and DVDs, attached to your PC, they appear
in the Computer section. The Homegroup link takes you to
your personal networks storage, whereas the Network link
connects you to all available network resources.
Here are the actions you can do with folders:
To add folders to the Start screen: In File
Explorer, right-click or tap and hold a folder

and choose Pin to Start from its contextual
menu. A tile for that folder appears on the Start
screen, and you can double-click or double-tap
it there to open it in File Explorer. (To remove
it from the Start screen, open its App bar and
then click or tap Unpin from Start. This does
not delete the folder.)
Users, which holds a folder for every person
who has an account on the PC, plus a folder

named Public that is visible to all users of a
PC and those connected to it via the network.
Each persons files are stored inside their user
folder. In each user folder are the folders most
people think of as their folders:
Desktop, which stores anything displayed on

the desktop.
Downloads, which is the default folder for

browsers to save files to.
Favorites, which stores bookmarks for web

pages used by Internet Explorer 10. You
really shouldnt put other files here.
My Documents, which is where most

applications want to save text, spreadsheet,
presentation, and similar document files.
My Music, which is where music files are

usually downloaded to or stored by the
Music and Windows Media Player apps.
My Pictures, which is where pictures (such

as photos and screen captures taken on the
PC or downloaded from a music store or
website) are saved.
Intel and PerfLogs are folders that Windows

uses for its own purposes. You should leave
them alone.
To add a folder to the Favorites list in

File Explorers Navigation pane: Open the
desired folder, right-click or tap and hold on
Favorites in the Navigation pane, and choose
Add Current Location to Favorites. (To remove
it from the Favorites list, right-click or tap and
hold on the folder name in that list and choose
Remove. Again, this does not delete the folder.)
Selecting folders and files

To select a folder or file so you can manipulate it, click or
tap it. To select multiple files, click or tap the first item in the
list and then hold Shift and click or tap the last item to select
all items between them. Or, if youre using a touchscreen,
use check boxes to select multiple files, even if they arent
adjacent. The ability to use check boxes is enabled by
default on a touchscreen PC but not on a regular PC.
40
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 40
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Working with Files

If youre using a mouse, follow these
steps to use check boxes to select
files; touchscreen users can skip to
Step 3 because check box selection
is already enabled:
In File Explorer, enable check

box selection by going to the
Ribbons View tab and clicking
or tapping the Options button.
In the Folder Options dialog box

that appears, go to the View tab
and scroll through the options
until you find Use Check Boxes
to Select Items and then select
that check box. Click or tap the
OK button.
Select the first file by clicking

or tapping the area to the left
of its filename. (You wont see
the check box until you select it
with a click or a tap or until you
hover over it with the mouse
pointer.) Repeat this action to
select more files. (To deselect a
file, select the check box again
to remove the check mark.)
The Ribbons Home tab in File Explorer offers other

methods for selecting files and folders: The Select All option
does just what it says selects all objects in a folder or
library. Select None works similarly. And Invert Selection
switches the selection, selecting what hadnt been selected
and deselecting what had been selected.
To rename a file or folder, click or tap it, wait a second,

and click it again. Its name becomes highlighted; just type
in a new name and click elsewhere on the screen when
youre done.
Creating and renaming folders and files
You can move files and folders in several ways, but most
are too much work. The two simplest ways are as follows:
You can create your own folders both within these folders
and on the C: drive. You can create a new folder in several
ways:
Right-click or tap and hold in an empty area

of a disks or folders file list and choose
NewFolder from the contextual menu.
Click the New Folder icon above the menu bar

in File Explorer.
Click
the New Folder icon on the Ribbons

Home tab.
Press Ctrl+Shift+N.
Moving and copying folders and files

Drag
a file or folder from its folder over a

folder in the Navigation pane of File Explorer;
if that folder has subfolders, theyll appear if
you hover a few seconds. When the desired
folder appears in the Navigation pane, release
the mouse button or your finger to drop the
item to its new location.
Select the file or folder and press Ctrl+X to cut
it, navigate to the desired new location in File

Explorer, and press Ctrl+V to paste the cut file,
in essence moving it.
To create a file, the easiest way is to create a new document

in an application and save it.
In File Explorer, you also can right-click or tap and hold an
empty area of the file list and choose NewFolder from the
contextual menu. You get a blank document that you can
open in a compatible application.
You also can usually create folders in the Save As

dialog box when saving files from Windows Desktop
apps; click the New Folder button (an icon of a folder
with a plus sign).
Dummies.com
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 41
41
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Apps and Files

You can also open an existing document and save it
with a new name, making a copy that you then modify.
Alternatively, you can select a file or folder, press Ctrl+C,
navigate to a different location in File Explorer, and press
Ctrl+V to paste a copy of that item.
Deleting folders and files

If you want to trash a file or folder, freeing up the bits it
takes on the disks for use by other files and folders, you
have several easy options to do so:
Drag the file or folder into the Recycle Bin on

the desktop.
Select the file or folder and press Ctrl+D.

Select the file or folder, and in the Home tab
of the File Explorers Ribbon, click the Delete

icon.
Select the file or folder and right-click or tap
and hold the item, and then choose Delete

from the contextual menu that appears.
Searching for Files

The easiest way to find a file in Windows 8 is to use the
Search charm and make sure that Files is active. (Click or
tap the Files icon to make it active.) Then enter your search
term in the text field and press Enter or click or tap the
Search button (the magnifying-glass icon). A list of matching
files appears in the pane at left.
You can also search in the Windows Desktop by using the
traditional method. But truth be told, its not as easy to
search the old way as it is in the Search charm. But if you
prefer to work in the familiar Windows Desktop, open File
Explorer and click or tap Computer in the Navigation pane
at left. This is important because File Explorer usually starts
its search from whatever folder you or the last application
was most recently using, which means it wont search the
entire PC. If you start at Computer, youre sure to search
everything the PC can see. Type your search term in the
search field below the Ribbon and then press Enter or click
or tap the magnifying-glass icon. A list of matching files
appears below.
The File Explorer approach does have a couple advantages:
You can navigate the folder hierarchy to narrow your
search, and you can change the way the files display using
the Ribbons View tab options, such as the icon size or as
a simple list.
The Search charm and its search results (left) and searching in File Explorer (right)
42
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 42
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Files in the Cloud with SkyDrive
Files in the Cloud

with SkyDrive
O
ne of the beauties of using

a
Microsoft
account is that you can
link as many as five PCs
to that account and have
their settings and apps
automatically update over
the Internet, so they stay
in sync with each other.
But any files you store
on a PC do not sync to
the others, so if you start
working on something on
your work PC but forget
to copy it to your PC
tablet, it wont be there
when you turn on that PC
tablet at your hotel.
Unless you use SkyDrive,
that is.
SkyDrive is Microsofts
cloud storage service,
storing files on Microsofts
servers and making them
available via an Internet
connection. The concept
is not new: Google Drive
(formerly Google Docs),
Dropbox, and Box have
offered a similar service
for years. All of them,
including SkyDrive, give
you some storage for
free (usually 2GB to 5GB,
but 7GB for SkyDrive)
and charge an annual
fee for additional storage
capacity.
Whats different about SkyDrive is that it comes preinstalled

in Windows 8, and some apps such as Office 2013 can
access it directly for working on files in its Open and Save
As dialog boxes, rather than make you navigate to its files
as with competing services. Microsoft wants you to use
SkyDrive, so it has tilted the playing field in SkyDrives
favor.
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 43
SkyDrive on the Start screen (top) and the Windows Desktops File Explorer (bottom)
Dummies.com
43
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Apps and Files

To use SkyDrive in the Start screen, just run the SkyDrive
app from the Start screen. On the Windows Desktop, you
have to download the SkyDrive application from www.
skydrive.com; after you do so, you can access SkyDrive in
File Explorer by looking in the Navigation panes Favorites
section.
When you open SkyDrive in either environment and you
arent already signed in to SkyDrive, youre asked to sign in
(you can use your Microsoft account, Live ID, or SkyDrive
login) or create an account.
By default, your SkyDrive account usually has three
folders Documents, Pictures, and Public but it could
have just Documents.
SkyDrive is also available for Windows Vista and 7;

Windows Phone; Mac OS X Lion and later; Android
(used by various smartphones and tablets); and iOS
(used by the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch); as well
as via the web for other operating systems. You can
download it from www.skydrive.com or get it from the
Apple App Store for iOS, the Google Play store for
Android, or the Windows Store for Windows Phone.
Thus, you can share files across multiple types of
computers, not just with Windows 8 PCs.
Working with SkyDrive on the Windows Desktop

You can easily navigate to SkyDrive in File Explorer from
the Navigation pane as if it were a local folder or disk,
adding and removing folders and files using the standard
File Explorer methods.
Likewise, you navigate to it in apps through Open and Save
As dialog boxes as if it were a local disk or folder.
icon visible so you have easy access to its settings when

desired. To do so, click or tap the up-pointing triangle icon
in the icon tray to get a list of hidden icons and to get the
Customize option that lets you change what displays in the
icon tray. To have the SkyDrive icon appear, scroll through
the icons list and choose Show Icon and Notifications in the
menu adjacent to SkyDrive.
SkyDrive displays notifications in the taskbar when files

are updated on SkyDrive, and you can make the SkyDrive
Working with SkyDrive in the Start Screen

The SkyDrive app on the Start screen works very differently
and does less than the SkyDrive app on the Windows
Desktop. For example, you cant create or move files. But
you can add or delete folders, and upload files to it.
To open a file from the Start screens SkyDrive, click or tap
it. The file will open in the default application for that file
type, whether a Start screen app or a Windows Desktop

app.
To delete a file stored in SkyDrive from the Start screens
SkyDrive, right-click it or, on a touchscreen PC, drag it
down toward the bottom of the screen, to open the App
bar. Then click or tap the Delete icon on the App bar.
Use the App bar to delete files in SkyDrive
44
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 44
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Files in the Cloud with SkyDrive

To download a file from SkyDrive to
your PC, you need to open the file
and save it locally from the app it
opened. Heres how to add files from
your PC to SkyDrive via the Start
screen SkyDrive app:
In the main SkyDrive screen,

open the App bar and click or
tap the Upload icon.
Select the files you want to add

to SkyDrive. Simply click or tap
each file; click a selected file to
deselect it. (Click the Select All
icon in the App bar to select
all files.) Then click the Add to
SkyDrive button.
Click or tap the Details icon

on the App bar to see files
organized as a list with
information such as file size. The
icon becomes the Thumbnails
icon; click or tap it to view the
files as tiles. (It then becomes
the Details icon again.)
The screen that appears displays

any documents on your PC
in the current folder (such as
Pictures, which displays the
contents of the PCs My Pictures
folder). Any folders appear as
tiles; click or tap the tile to see
its files. Click or tap Go Up to
move up to the parent folder.
To switch to a different folder

on your PC, tap the
icon
to the right of Files to open a
menu of folders and then tap
the desired folder to see its files.
Fetching Files from Another PC

SkyDrive has a cool feature called fetching that lets it access files on another
Windows PC, such as to get that file you forgot on your PC but need at a
client site where you have just your PC tablet (or iPad, iPhone, MacBook,
Windows Phone, Android device, or other supported device). The trick is that
the Windows PC with the files you want has to be turned on and signed in
to your Microsoft (or SkyDrive) account, with the fetching feature enabled.
The SkyDrive Fetch feature lets you go into any PC (but not Macs or other
devices) thats signed in with your Microsoft account and retrieve files from
that computer.
When you set up SkyDrive on the Windows Desktop, by default the Make Files
on This PC Available to Me on My Other Devices option was selected, which
means fetching was enabled. If you deselected it, you can enable fetching from
the Windows Desktop taskbar (not from the Settings charm for the Start screen
SkyDrive app) by right-clicking or tapping and holding the SkyDrive icon and
choosing Settings from the contextual menu; then select the Make Files on This
PC Available to Me on My Other Devices option and click or tap OK. (If youre
using a corporate PC, your IT department may have disabled fetching, in which
case you cant turn it on.)
Dummies.com
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 45
45
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Apps and Files

When fetching is enabled, heres how it works:
With your browser, go to www.

skydrive.com and sign in using
your Microsoft or SkyDrive
account.
Select the files you want to

copy to SkyDrive; check marks
appear to their left (if you are
using the tiles, the check marks
appear at the upper right of the
tiles).
At the lower left of the SkyDrive

window is the PCs list, with
the names of any signed-in PCs
available. Click a computers
name to open it.
Your files display. Click or tap a

folder to open its contents.
In the Windows Desktop,

click or tap the desired action:
Open, Download, or Copy to
SkyDrive. In the Start screen,
choose Download or Upload to
SkyDrive from the contextual
menu that appears.
The first time you access a computer this way, youre

asked to enter a security code to verify youre permitted
to access that computers files. When you signed up for
SkyDrive, you were asked for a phone number to use
for verification; the code is usually texted to that phone,
or a voicemail is left with the code. If you didnt get the
code, click or tap I Didnt Get the Code and then choose
a phone number or e-mail address to send the code to
from the pop-up menu. (You cant add new numbers
or addresses here; you must update your Microsoft or
Windows Live accounts security settings to do so.)
46
05_9781118484791-ch02.indd 46
11/9/12 12:56 PM
Going
Surfing
theOnline
Web
Surfing the Web

IN THIS ARTICLE
Connecting
wirelessly to the Internet Using Internet Explorer 10 on the Start screen

Working with IE 10 on the Windows Desktop
indows
8
really likes
the Internet,
and it assumes you have
an Internet connection
when you install and
run it. It checks to see
whether youre connected to the Internet
via a cable modem,
dial-up modem, or
DSL modem, whether
over a wired Ethernet
cable or via a Wi-Fi
wireless connection.
It always shows the
connection status on
its lock screen, as
well as in the Settings
charm. Windows 8
also regularly uses
the Internet to check
for and download
updates and to
give you access to
the web. With an
Internet connection
and a Microsoft
account, Windows
8 even syncs
the settings and
Start screen apps
across as many
as five PCs signed
into that same
account.
You can, of
course,
use
Windows
8
without an Internet
connection, but you wont get the full
experience. (You can find out more about
connecting wirelessly and networking
computers later in this book.)
Internet Explorer 10
in the Start screen en
vironment (top) an
d on the Windows De
sktop (bottom)
Dummies.com
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 47
47
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Going Online
Comparing the Two

Versions of IE 10
Windows 8 provides two versions of Internet Explorer 10
(IE 10), one on the Windows Desktop and one on the
Start screen. Because these browsers are basically the same
beast, they share your browsing history, cookies, saved
passwords, and temporary files. Deleting those items from
one version of the browser also deletes them from the
other.
The browsers differ in a few ways, but most obviously
through the limitations of the Start screen browser:
It
shows sites only in full-screen view; you

cant place two sites side by side to compare
them.
It doesnt let you set a Home screen. Instead,

the browser always opens to the last site you
visited.
It can display Flash content only on Microsoftapproved websites, so on some sites youll
miss out on some movies and advertisements
(not that youll miss the ads!).
It cant run plug-ins such Adobe AIR or Adobe

Reader.
You might consider using a competing browser such

as Firefox (www.getfirefox.com), Safari (www.apple.
com/safari), or Chrome (www.google.com/chrome).
All three support many more HTML5 capabilities than
IE 10, which means on more advanced websites you
can do more with videos, animations, and interactive
elements all aspects of the emerging HTML5 web
standard. And remember: You can use more than one
browser in Windows, so its not an either/or choice.
Getting online in the first place

Most people in North America, Europe, and other
developed countries already have Internet connections
set up. Many use broadband connections from a cable
company or phone company, and some use wireless
broadband services when running wires to their (usually
rural) homes is difficult. And a shrinking but still large
group uses their phone lines and a device called a
dial-up modem that lets it connect to the Internet, though
very slowly. Many people also connect to the Internet
when theyre on the road via Wi-Fi networks, such as at
cafs, hotels, and even parks; some of these are free,
but others require a subscription or an account with a
broadband provider.
Here are some options depending on where youre
establishing a connection:
Home: If you dont have an Internet connection,
your choices are usually governed by where you
live. In urban and suburban areas, you typically
can subscribe to a service from a cable TV provider
or phone company (DSL or fiber-optic). To the
cable, phone, or other line that comes into your
house, you connect a device called a modem that
acts as the way station between your computers
and other devices and the providers Internet
service. That modem may have Ethernet jacks to
plug computers and devices into and/or it may
provide a Wi-Fi network your devices can connect
to wirelessly, so you can share that connection
with multiple computers and mobile devices. Or
you may need to connect a router to that modem
to gain the Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections; your
provider called an Internet service provider
(ISP) will tell you what you need to use its service
and often will sell or rent you the equipment.
Work: At work, businesses use similar technologies
and provide an Ethernet connection or sign-in
information for Wi-Fi access.
On the road: When youre on the road, you can
look for a Wi-Fi hot spot and connect. In some
cases, you pay an hourly or daily fee to use that hot
spot. Your ISP may also have a relationship with
some hot spots that lets you access them for free
by entering a username and password that the ISP
provides you. You typically enter that information
after connecting to the hot spot; your browser may
open automatically and present a sign-in screen,
but if not, open your browser and then try to open
any website to get the sign-in screen to appear.
On a touchscreen, double-tap the screen to zoom in

to the web page. Double-tap again to zoom back
out. You can also use the pinch and expand gestures
to zoom in and out to the degree you prefer. These
techniques work in both versions of IE 10.
48
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 48
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Surfing the Web
Using IE 10 on the Start Screen

Built for on-the-fly browsing, the Start screens browser
works quickly. Unlike most Start screen apps, the IE 10
App bar displays by default, so you can immediately enter
a web address in the address field and access the basic
controls. After you type in a web address, press Enter or
tap the right-arrow icon to the right of the field to have
IE 10 open it.
Note that, on a touchscreen, when you enter a web

address, a set of tiles appears above the keyboard, showing
frequently accessed web pages; click or tap one to open
it. (You cant modify what appears in those tiles or change
their order.)
If youre using the Start screen

version of IE 10 and find yourself
needing a more powerful browser,
open the App bar (by right-clicking
or, on a touchscreen, swiping up
from the bottom edge or down
from the top edge). Then click or
tap the Page Tools icon (it looks
like a wrench), and choose View in
Desktop to switch to the Windows
Desktop version of IE 10.
Tiles for frequently used web pages appear when you enter a web address
The IE 10 controls on the Start screen
Dummies.com
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 49
49
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Going Online
To see the Control bar, which shows thumbnails of the most
recently visited web pages for easy access to them, rightclick or, on a touchscreen, swipe up from the bottom edge
or down from the top edge. (To hide both the App bar and
Control bar, repeat the action.) You can delete web pages
from the Control bar by clicking or tapping the Close (X)
icon near its upper-right corner.
Touring the IE 10 controls
those handles to determine the selection area; then tap and

hold on one of those selection handles and choose Copy
from the contextual menu that appears.
Open your word processor or other application and paste
the text into a document. The easiest way to paste is to
press Ctrl+V; on a touchscreen, tap into a text field or textcapable app, and then when the selection handle appears,
tap it and choose Paste from the contextual menu.
Heres what the IE 10 App bar and other onscreen controls

in the Start screen do:
New
Tab: Opens a blank IE 10 screen with

an address field along the bottom. Enter the
address of the website youd like to visit.
Back: Revisit the page you visited just prior to
this page. On a touchscreen, swipe to the left

to go back to the previous page in your current
sessions browsing history.
Forward: This lets you return to the page you

just left. On a touchscreen, swipe to the left to
go back to the previous page in your current
sessions browsing history.
Refresh:
This reloads the current page,

gathering the latest content available.
Pin to Start: This icon adds the page to your

Start screen as a tile, giving you one-click
access for a return visit.
Page
Tools: This opens a menu with three

options: Find on Page lets you search for text
on the current page, View on Desktop opens the
page in IE 10 on the Windows Desktop, and
Get App for This Site downloads an app to use
to access the websites content. (If the Get App
for This Site option is in gray, no such app is
available.)
The selection handles that appear when selecting text on a touchscreen
When you browse through web pages and spot a picture

thats too good to pass up, you can save it to your computer:
Right-click or tap and hold the picture and choose Copy or
Save to Picture Library from the contextual menu that appears.
If you choose Paste, you can copy the image
into a compatible application by using its Paste

button or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V.
If you choose Save to Picture Library, the image

is saved to the My Pictures folder, which you
typically access in the File Explorer in the
Windows Desktop but can also be accessed in
Start screen apps that allow for file navigation.
Tab
Tools: This opens a menu with two

options: New InPrivate Tab and Close Tabs.
The New InPrivate Tab option opens a new
tab for visiting a website privately; the browser
conveniently forgets youve visited that site, so
someone else cant retrace your steps. The Close
Tabs option removes the thumbnails of your
previously viewed sites from the Control bar.
Dont use downloaded images for material you

distribute or publish to others without permission. To
use the image, you need to have permission from the
copyright holder or ensure that it is not copyrighted
(such as for NASA photos).
Saving text and images from a website

Often when youre visiting a website, you want to copy text
or images from it.
To save just some of a web pages text when using a
keyboard and mouse, select the text you want to grab, rightclick it, and choose Copy from the contextual menu or
just select the text and press Ctrl+C. On a touchscreen, tap
on the text, which causes the word where you tapped to
be highlighted and for two circular handles to appear. Drag
You search for websites using the Search charm when

IE 10 is open. It searches only via the Bing search
engine. If you want to use a different search engine,
such as Google or Yahoo!, you need to go that search
engines website in IE 10 and use its web page to
conduct your search.
50
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 50
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Surfing the Web
Using IE 10 on the
Windows Desktop
When you need more power than the Start screens
simplified browser has to offer, the full version of Internet
Explorer 10 awaits you on the Windows Desktop. If youve
used a PC, you almost certainly have used Internet Explorer
before, though probably an earlier version. IE 10 works very
much like recent Internet Explorer versions, especially those
in Windows 7, so it shouldnt be much of an adjustment to
use IE 10 on the Windows Desktop.
Touring IE 10s controls

Many of the core controls in IE 10 for the Windows Desktop
work the same way they do in IE 10 for the Start screen
or in any browser, for that matter, including the Back,
Forward, Refresh, and New Tab buttons. Others are familiar

from other previous editions of Internet Explorer and other
browsers, such as:
Home:
This brings you to the web page

youve designated as your home page or to a
menu of several such pages. You can set your
home page(s) by right-clicking or tapping and
holding the Home button and choosing Add or
Change Home Page from the contextual menu
that appears. Note: The shortcut Alt+Home
also opens the home page.
Search:
This lets you search the web for

whatever text you enter. To add other search
engines beyond the default Bing, click Add
at the bottom of the Search pane. Note: The
shortcut Ctrl+E also opens the Search pane.
IE 10s controls in the Windows Desktop
Dummies.com
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 51
51
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Going Online
Autocomplete:
As soon as you enter just a

few characters, Internet Explorer opens a list
of sites it thinks may be what you want to
visit. Click or tap a site to revisit it; remove an
unwanted site by hovering the pointer over it
and then clicking the X icon that appears to
the right of its name. (On a touchscreen, swipe
from just above the sites name and release just
below to display the X icon.)
Favorites: This opens the Favorites list, a list of
links that often lead to your favorite websites.

From the Favorites list, you can click or tap the
Add to Favorites button to add your currently
viewed site to the list. Note: The shortcut Alt+C
also opens the Favorites list.
Tools:
This opens a menu thats chock-full

of Internet Explorer settings and commands,
including Print, Zoom, and File (for saving the
web page to your PC and searching within the
web page). Use the Safety option to delete your
browsing history, browse in private (handy for
bank sites), or check suspicious websites for
danger. Note: The shortcut Ctrl+T also opens
the Tools menu.
IE 10 normally lives within the confines of its own application window. But occasionally it swells up to fill the entire
screen, neatly trimming away both your menus and the
desktops taskbar. Full-screen mode looks great for movies,
but the lack of menus leaves you with no way to switch
to a different program. Well, there is a way: Just move the
IE 10 on the Windows Desktop provides two ways

to make web pages accessible even when IE 10 isnt
open. One way is to open the web page you want
and then choose ToolsPin to Start in IE 10, which
adds the current web page to the Start screen as a
tile. The other way is to drag the sites icon to the
left of its web address onto the Windows Desktops
taskbar to pin it there.
mouse to the top of the screen to display a toolbar. (On a

touchscreen PC, that toolbar always displays when IE 10 is
in full-screen mode.) A related tip: Press F11 to toggle in
and out of full-screen mode.
Using the Command bar

Not shown by default in IE 10 is the Command bar, but
its handy to have available. To turn it on, right-click or tap
and hold in the empty area above the toolbar and choose
Command Bar in the contextual menu that appears. The
Command bar duplicates many of the File, Safety, and other
options on the Tools menu, but it adds several others:
Send
web content via e-mail: Choose

PageSend Page by E-Mail to send an image
of the current page to someone via e-mail, or
choose PageSend Link by E-Mail to send just
the web address.
Update Windows: Choose SafetyWindows

Update to check for updates to Windows.
Adjust IE 10 settings: Choose ToolsInternet
Options to open the Internet Options dialog

box, where you can change settings for many
aspects of IE 10s behavior. For example, you
can set its level of trust for suspicious websites, determine whether browser history gets
cleared every time you close the browser,
manage browser plug-ins (called add-ons in
the dialog box), and control how text, links,
and images display.
If you think youve messed up the Desktops Internet

Explorer beyond repair from adjusting various
settings, relax. When all seems lost, you can return
the program to its original settings with this trick:
Choose ToolsInternet Options, go to the Advanced
pane, and click Reset. This action wipes out all of
your settings, including your list of favorite sites, but
it also removes any evil that may have been done to
your browser.
52
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 52
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Surfing the Web
Internet Explorers secret history of

your web visits
Internet Explorer keeps a record of every website you
visit. Although Internet Explorers History list provides a
handy record of your computing activities, its also a
spys dream. Heres how to manage the History list:
To keep tabs on what Internet Explorer is recording: Click or tap the Favorites button and go to the
History pane. Internet Explorer lists every website
youve visited in the past 20 days. Feel free to sort
the entries by clicking or tapping the little arrow to
the right of the word History. You can sort them by
date, alphabetically, most visited, or by the order
youve visited on that particular day a handy
way to jump back to that site you found interesting
this morning.
Working with browser tabs

Each time you open a browser tab, it gets added to the
toolbar, next to the other open tabs. Click a tab to switch
to it and click its Close button (the X icon) to close that tab
completely.
But sometimes you want to see several web pages at the
same time onscreen. To do that, you can detach a tab from
the toolbar: Just drag the visible part of the tab in the toolbar
out of the toolbar, and IE 10 creates a new window for that
tab, which you can place anywhere you prefer onscreen. To
put a tab back in with the others, drag its title back into the
toolbar between or next to the tabs there. Thats it!
To delete a single entry from the history: Right-click

it or tap and hold it and choose Delete from the
contextual menu. To delete the entire list, exit the
Favorites list, press Ctrl+Shift+Del. You can also
choose ToolsInternet Options, and then click the
Delete button in the Browsing History section. Either
way, a menu appears, letting you delete your history and other items.
To turn off the history: Click the Settings button
instead of the Delete button. Then in the History
section, change the Days to Keep Pages in History
option to 0.
Dragging a browser tab into its own window
Saving text and images from a website

You save a text selection in the Windows Desktop version of
IE 10 the same way you do in the Start screen version: Select
the text you want to grab, right-click it, and choose Copy
from the contextual menu; or just select the text and press
Ctrl+C. On a touchscreen, tap on the text, which causes
the word where you tapped to be highlighted and for two
circular handles to appear. Drag those handles to determine
the selection area; then tap and hold on one of those
selection handles and choose Copy from the contextual
menu that appears.
In your word processor or other application, paste the text
into a document. The easiest way to paste is to press Ctrl+V;
on a touchscreen, tap into a text field or text-capable app,
and then when the selection handle appears, tap it and
choose Paste from the contextual menu that appears.
Saving an image from a website in IE 10 for Windows Desktop
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 53
To save a picture from a website to your PC, right-click or

tap and hold the picture and choose Save Picture As from
the contextual menu that appears. In the Save Picture dialog
box that appears, choose a new filename or stick with the
filename used by the web page, and then click or tap Save
to place your pilfered picture in your My Pictures folder. Just
remember: Dont republish or share images you dont have
permission to use.
Dummies.com 53
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Going Online
Downloading a program, song, or other file

Sometimes downloading is as easy as clicking a websites
Download button. When the website asks where to save the
file, choose your Downloads folder for easy retrieval. The file
usually arrives within a few seconds. But when a website lacks a
Download button, you need to take a few extra steps:
Right-click or tap and hold the

link or button pointing to your
desired file and choose Save
Target As in the contextual
menu that appears.
If you selected an application,

Windows asks whether you
want to run or save the file (so
you can run it later). Click or
tap Save, so you have the file on
your computer for use later.
No matter what type of file youre downloading, Windows 8

begins copying the file from the website to your hard disk.
A window appears to tell you when it finishes downloading,
and you can click or tap the Open Folder button to open
the folder harboring your downloaded file.
Many downloaded files come packaged in a tidy
folder with a zipper on it, known as a Zip file.
Windows 8 treats them like normal folders; just
double-click or double-tap them to see inside
them. To extract copies of the zipped files,
right-click or tap and hold the zipped file and
choose Extract All.
Navigate to your Downloads

folder or wherever you want to
save it, if necessary, and click
the Save button.
Plug-ins are very handy, but they come at a cost: Some

hackers use them to sneak past your PCs native defenses.
And some websites lie about the plug-in theyre installing,
putting viruses or worse on your PC. (File-sharing sites and
sites advertised to you in unsolicited e-mails are most likely
to do so.) So if Internet Explorer says it needs a plug-in or
the latest version of the software, click the Install or Yes
button only if you trust the website and the plug-in.
Working with plug-ins

Most browsers can do much more than display web pages,
thanks to something called plug-ins, or add-ons. These
are programs that can run from inside a browser to, for
example, play movies, view PDF files, or run programs.
The most commonly used ones are Adobe Flash, Adobe
AIR, Adobe Reader, Apple QuickTime, Microsoft Silverlight,
and Oracle Java.
If you accidentally install a plug-in, you can disable

it. Choose ToolsInternet Options from the Command
bar, go to the Programs pane, click the Manage AddOns button, scroll through the list of plug-ins, rightclick or tap and hold the suspect one, and choose
Disable from the contextual menu.
54
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 54
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Connecting with E-Mail
Connecting with E-Mail

IN THIS ARTICLE
When
and how to use the Start Screens Mail Other ways to access e-mail
f youre under 30, you may wonder what e-mail is.

Just kidding! But its true
that e-mail
is less popular
with younger
people. That
may explain
why Microsoft
has built just
minimal e-mail
capabilities into
Windows 8: It
has only the basic
Mail app in the
Start screen environment, and the
Windows Desktop
doesnt include a
mail application.
Still, e-mail is a
versatile, highly
useful way to
communicate,
especially when
you want to include
detailed information
and file attachments
and be able to refer
back to and even
sort old e-mails
all activities that are
either impossible or
difficult to do in the
instant-messaging
services and social
networking services
that are so popular.
Of course, its not an
either/or proposition:
Most people can and
should use all these
communication channels
as appropriate for what theyre trying to communicate
and who theyre trying to communicate with.
il app (to
The Start screens Ma
ok app (bottom)
nal Microsoft Outlo
s Desktops optio
p) and the Window
Dummies.com
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 55
55
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Going Online
Using Mail in the Start Screen

Click or tap the Mail tile in the Start screen environment to
open the Mail app. Easy, right? Yes, but all you get is a blank
screen with Mail at the upper left.
Setting up e-mail accounts

To really use mail, you first have to set up your e-mail
accounts in Mail. To do so, open Mail and follow these
steps:
Open the Settings charm and

click or tap Accounts in the
Settings section.
Your e-mail account is now

ready and will begin downloading e-mail to your PC. To add
another account, repeat Steps 1
through 3.
On the screen that appears,

click or tap Add an Account
and then choose the type of
e-mail account from the list that
appears: Hotmail (including
Outlook.com), Google, Outlook
(Microsoft Exchange or Office
365), or Other Account. Choose
the Other Account option if you
use a POP or IMAP account
such as for the e-mail address
provided by your Internet
service provider, if you use a
different service (such as yahoo.
com or icloud.com), or if you
have your own domain (such as
wiley.com).
Enter your e-mail address and

password on the screen that
appears. If your e-mail has
special settings (ask your IT
department), tap or click See
All to enter them. Then click or
tap Connect, and Mail will try
to connect to the e-mail server
and set up the account on your
PC. If it needs more information
(typically for an Exchange
account), a screen appears
requesting it.
The Start screens Mail does not support the most

widely used type of e-mail account, known as POP
(Post Office Protocol). Youll get an error message if
you try to set up such an account.
56
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 56
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Connecting
Surfing
with
theE-Mail
Web
Writing new e-mails

To compose an e-mail, click the New E-Mail button (the big
+ icon). Then fill in the following information:
Recipients: At the left side, you enter the

recipients in the To and Cc fields; type in
addressees e-mail addresses separated by
commas or type in their names to have Mail
look up possible matches from your address
book; then click or tap the desired person from
the list that appears.
Also on the left side are one or two options,
depending on whether you have multiple
accounts set up:
From Account, represented by the
icon to
the right of the current e-mail account. Click
or tap it to open a menu that lets you change
which e-mail account the message is sent from.
has no menu.) You can also use the Ctrl+C and

Ctrl+V keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste,
of course.
At the right side of the App bar are the formatting controls:
Font: The options are Arial, Calibri, Cambria,
Consolas, Georgia, Tahoma, Times New
Roman, and Verdana, plus you can change the
text size.
Bold, Italic, and Underline: These controls do
exactly what youd expect them to.
Text Color: You get ten swatches to choose from.
Highlight: This lets you color the background
behind text. There are nine color options plus
None to remove the highlighting.
Emoticons: This lets you insert smiley faces and
dozens of other such symbols.
Show More, which if clicked or tapped opens

the Bcc field (to copy people secretly on the
message) and Priority (to mark the message as
high, normal, or low priority).
More: This opens a menu with options to create

bulleted and numbered lists, as well as to redo
or undo the most recent editing or formatting.
Subject: On the right side of the screen, click
Attachments: To add file attachments to your
or tap the Add a Subject placeholder text to

enter a subject line for your e-mail. Then click
or tap in the area below the line to enter your
message.
Message: You can do more than just type text
in your message, because Mail also provides

formatting and editing controls. To access them,
be sure that text is selected or that the pointer
is at least inside the text area; then open the
App bar. If any text is selected, youll see the
Copy/Paste icon at the far left; click or tap it to
get the Copy and Paste menu options. (If no
text is selected, the icon becomes Paste and
e-mail, click or tap the Attachments icon on the

left side of the App bar and then select the files
using the Start screens file navigator.
At the upper right of the screen, click the Send button (the
flying-envelope icon) to send your message; or, click the
Cancel button (the X icon) and then choose Save Draft to
save the message for later (such as to finish writing it) or
Delete (to remove the message and not send it). You can
also save a draft at any time while composing an e-mail by
clicking or tapping the Save Draft icon in the App bar
thats safer than using the Cancel button, because its easy
to mistakenly choose Delete Draft from its menu.
Dummies.com
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 57
57
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Going Online
You can also click or tap the small

+ icon to the right of the To or Cc
field to open the People app (your
address book) and select a person
from its list. (Use To for the direct
recipients of the e-mail and Cc for
the indirect recipients, those who
need to be kept in the loop.)
Working with e-mails

The Mail app works very much like other mail apps youve
likely used, though its user interface is much cleaner. Here
are the main controls to note:
Accounts and folders: Click or tap an account
to see its folders and messages. Click a folder

to see any messages in it. Note that you cant
add, delete, move, or rename folders in Mail.
But you can move messages among folders
by selecting the message in the message list,
opening the App bar, clicking or tapping the
Move icon, and then clicking or tapping the
desired folder.
The App bars editing and formatting controls for mail messages
day or date received, and the subject line. It

may also show a picture of the person if the
image is in his or her e-mail or in your address
book. If a message is displayed in bold text in
the message list, you havent read it. You may
also see a paperclip icon, which indicates that
the message has files attached, or you may see
a ! icon to indicate a high-priority message or a
icon to indicate a low-priority message.
Attachments: If a message has one or more
files attached, a paperclip icon appears to the

right of the senders name in the message list
and in the message itself. Click the icon in the
message itself to download the files to your PC.
Message
list: The message list shows the

name of the person who sent the e-mail, the
58
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 58
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Connecting
Surfing
with
theE-Mail
Web
Use the Sync icon on the App bar to check for new
messages. Mail checks periodically on its own, but
you can force an immediate check using this icon.
Use the Pin to Start icon to create a tile on the Start
screen for the current mailbox a handy way to
see at a glance whether a specific account has new
messages.
Reply,
Reply to All, and Forward: When

reading a message, click or tap the Reply
icon to open a menu with the Reply, Reply
All, and Forward options. Select the desired
option for, respectively, replying to just the
sender, replying to all recipients, or forwarding
the message to others whom you choose. A
new message appears containing the original
message; enter your additional message, if any,
at the top.
Mark Unread: If you want to mark a message
as unread, such as to remind you to act on it

later, select the message in the message list,
open the App bar, and click or tap the Mark
Unread icon. The message will be bolded in
the message list.
As previously noted, Mail is a basic app, lacking many

capabilities found in other mail applications. For example,
you cant set mail rules or junk filtering, set out-of-office
messages, set mail signatures, or adjust mail folders, as
you can in most mail applications that run in the Windows
Desktop.
Accessing E-Mail in
Other Apps
Because the Start screens Mail app is limited in its
capabilities, chances are good that you wont use it as your
only e-mail app in Windows 8. Many people are likely to
use Microsoft Outlook on the Windows Desktop to get
the full e-mail experience after all, its the corporate
standard and comes with most editions of Microsoft Office,
If you have a physical keyboard and a mouse, you

can select multiple messages from the message list:
Shift+click a range or Ctrl+click multiple individual
messages and then click or tap the Delete icon. On
a touchscreen PC with no mouse, you can tap the
first desired message; then on a physical keyboard
(you cant do this with the onscreen keyboard), hold
down Shift and use the or keys to select the range
from there, releasing Shift when done. Or tap the
first message, hold down Ctrl, and move to the next
desired message and then press Enter to add it to
the selection; repeat this sequence for each desired
selection. Unfortunately, theres no way to select
multiple messages using only touch gestures.
which most people have on their PCs. You can also access
your e-mail from websites such as Outlook.com (formerly
Hotmail), Yahoo.com, or the website provided by your
Internet service provider, most of whom include e-mail
accounts in their services. Or you may choose to use
another e-mail program, such as Mozillas free Thunderbird,
on the Windows Desktop.
Many people pick one e-mail app and then use websites for
access when not at their computer, though plenty of people
use the websites only to access their e-mail theres no
right or wrong answer to how to access e-mail.
Because there are so many ways to access e-mail from the
Windows Desktop, this text cant cover them all; refer to
the documentation for your e-mail app or website. But
because many new Windows 8 PCs but not those that
run the Windows RT version of Windows 8 come with
Outlook 2013, heres a quick guide to using it. If youve
used Outlook 2010 or earlier, Outlook 2013 will be familiar.
The main differences about it are its support for full-screen
mode and some of its visual appearance, because it uses
some of the spare Start screen interface style even though it
is not a Start screen app.
Outlook 2013 displays much more information and many
more controls than Mail, though it has all the usual features,
such as the ability to move among folders, delete messages,
reply to and forward them, and of course create them. In
the full-screen view, Outlook 2013 provides the following
capabilities that Mail does not:
Show/hide
the accounts and folders:

Hiding the accounts and folders leaves more
room for the messages themselves.
Message sort: You can sort your messages by
date, subject, sender, and other options, as well

as show just unread messages.
Dummies.com
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 59
59
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Going Online
Message
search: You can search your

messages in all or selected mailboxes for
specific text, to help find specific messages.
Conversations view: You can see all related
messages to the current one, and even filter

those messages by the person who sent them.
Reply
indicators: You can see at a glance

which messages youve replied to.
Switch
to related capabilities: Using the

Mail, Calendar, People, and Tasks links at the
bottom of the screen, you can switch to these
views for your Exchange, Google, or other
account that supports all or some of these features in addition to just e-mail, without having
to open different applications.
If you exit full-screen mode to open the Ribbon, you get

the dozens of other capabilities that Outlook 2013 offers,
such as managing mail rules, junk filters, out-of-office
notifications, meeting invitations, and message views, as
well as integrating with other Microsoft services such as
Lync online conferencing.
But Outlook 2013 has some drawbacks. One is that on a
smaller display, such as a PC tablet, its text and buttons are
often too small to read and accurately tap (so you may want
to carry a stylus and a pair of reading glasses with you).
The other is that some features are hidden, such as the
feature to close an open e-mail and return to the message
list. (Click or tap File to open a bar on the left side of the
screen and then click or tap its Close option.) That File bar
also is where you set up new accounts, import and export
messages, and open the Outlook Options dialog box for
advanced settings.
Outlook 2013 in full-screen mode (top) and regular mode (bottom)
60
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 60
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Going Social
Going Social
IN THIS ARTICLE
What
the People app can do Social networking via People

Managing contacts and your profile
ne of the coolest capabilities in

Windows 8 is its
People app, which integrates
many social networking services and your contacts and
personal profile into one
place, giving you a hub for
much of your social activities. Sure you can still go
to your favorite social networks websites or use dedicated apps for them in the
Start screen or Windows
Desktop environments, but
youll likely spend much of
your social time using the
Start screens People app
instead.
People
integrates
information
and
activities across people
in your Microsoft,
Hotmail/Outlook.com,
Outlook/Exchange,
Google
(Gmail),
LinkedIn, Facebook,
and Twitter accounts
if you link them to the
People app, that is.
You can link any or
all, getting access to
all the user profiles
stored in them for
use not only in the
People app but also
in e-mails and instant
messaging.
The People apps Wh
ats New social netw
ork view (top) and
People contacts vie
w (bottom)
Dummies.com
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 61
61
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Going Online
The People app has three basic components, each with its
own pane:
People:
This is your address book, storing

contact information and related information
such as websites and access to social
networking streams for each person in the
accounts you connect to.
Whats
New: This is a consolidated view of

all the tweets, posts, and updates from your
contacts social media activities.

click or tap the Accounts link.
Me:
This is your profile, where you choose

how much information to share with others
and connect your own feeds so you can see all
of your activity in one place as well.
You can have more than one of the same type of account
linked to the People app, such as several Twitter accounts,
if you want, in addition to having multiple types of accounts
linked to it. To link accounts to the People app, open the
app and follow these steps:
Any existing accounts display

at top. Click or tap the Add
an Account link to add an
additional account.
Click or tap the desired account

type from the list; then follow
the instructions on the screen
that appears, which differ
significantly for each type of
account.
You can change an accounts

settings at any time from the
Settings charm. Repeat Steps
1 and 2, except in Step 2 click
or tap an existing account.
Then update its settings in the
fields that appear, and click or
tap elsewhere when done.
62
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 62
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Going Social
Social Networking with the People App

After you link accounts to the People app, any that include
feeds update the Whats New pane of the People app
whenever your PC is connected to the Internet. You see a
tile for each update, with the most recent on the left. Scroll
through the tiles to peruse the updates. To get to the Whats
New pane, click or tap the Whats New link in the Social
section on the main People screen.
In the tiles, youll see any relevant controls for that social
service, such as Retweet for Twitter accounts, so you can
engage with the item directly from its tile. If you click or
tap a tile, you see more context for the person, based on
what he or she has chosen to share. Click or tap a persons
picture to get a profile screen from which you can click or
tap View All to see all of his or her recent posts.
To go back to the Whats New tiles or the main
People screen, click or tap the Back button (the
icon) at the upper left of the screen.
To initiate social networking posts from the People app,
open your Me pane by clicking or tapping your photo in
the Social section of the main People screen. You see your
social accounts listed. Enter your post in the appropriate
text field and press Enter to send it.
You can also initiate posts using these methods:
In
a content-oriented application such as

Internet Explorer, open the Share charm
and then click or tap People from the list of
options, if its available. Then choose your
desired service from the menu that appears to
open a pane in which you enter your post and
send it.
Click
the social services icon in any tile in

Peoples Whats New pane to launch the
services website in Internet Explorer 10 and
make your updates from there.
For social services that have Windows Desktop

or Start screen apps, you can install them and
switch to them via the Start screen.
To force the PC to update the Whats New tiles when

in the Whats New pane, click or tap the Refresh icon
in the App bar.
The detailed view of a persons social networking post
Dummies.com
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 63
63
11/9/12 12:54 PM
GoingOnline
Online
Going
Working with Contacts

You cant communicate without contacts,
and the People app is your main way
to manage your contacts in Windows
8. Not only do the Start screens Mail,
Messages, and People apps use it to find
addressees contact information, but so
do any applications (such as Outlook)
on the Windows Desktop that use the
venerable Windows Address Book.
In Windows 8, the Windows Address
Book and People use the same contact
information and keep it all updated
across the two environments. (For all
practical purposes, the Address Book
is no longer an app on the Windows
Desktop. Its now just a service stored in
the Program Files (x86) folder so older
Windows applications can still access it.)
In the People app, you can view the details of a persons
contact information by clicking or tapping his or her tile.
What displays is based on what information you have for
that person in the account it came from it could be a local
card entered in your PC, a card based on information stored
in an account such as your Microsoft account or Google
contacts, or a card based on a persons profile in a social
networking service such as Facebook or Twitter. If people
have social network feeds, you can see their recent posts
listed in their contact cards, as well as the View All link,
which you can click or tap to see all their recent activity.
If the information in a card is actionable, clicking or tapping
it performs that action. For example, clicking or tapping
Send Email opens a menu where you choose where to
send a new e-mail from. (If a person has multiple accounts,
choose the desired e-mail address from the
menu to
A persons contact card
the right.) Clicking or tapping Map Address opens IE 10

into Bing Maps and displays a map of the address, city, or
whatever geographic information is available. And clicking
or tapping View Profile opens the social network profile
displayed. (Again, use the
menu to change the profile
for people who have several social network profiles.)
But youre not limited to the information from those
sources; you can add information to any contact no matter
where the initial information came from. To edit the contact
information for that contact card, click or tap the Edit icon
on the App bar and then add the information you have.
If a person has multiple profiles (from multiple services),
click or tap the Link icon on the App bar to see them all
and connect them to other profiles not listed by clicking or
tapping Choose a Contact. Click or tap the Save icon when
done, or click or tap Cancel to not save your new links.
Adding a new contact
64
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 64
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Going Social
The beauty of tying a contact to an account is that the

contact is synced to all computers and devices that are
signed into that account, so you have to enter it only
once, and whenever you update it, its automatically
synced to all other devices using that account.
To jump to a persons contact card, rather than

scroll through the People app, just type the first letter
of the persons first name on a physical keyboard.
(Unfortunately, you cant use the onscreen keyboard
on a tablet PC to do so.)
To add a new contact, go to the People pane and click or

tap the New icon on the App bar. An empty contact card
displays, ready for you to fill in the information you have.
Its the same card you would see when editing an existing
contact, except no information is filled in.
Working with
Your Profile
Theres one other important difference when creating a new

card: the Account menu. Use it to specify where that contact
information is stored, based on the online accounts you
have available, such as your Microsoft account, Exchange
account, or Google Gmail account. After youre done
entering the information, click or tap the Save icon in the
App bar.
The final pane in the People app is Me, which shows your
profile, including any recent social networking posts. (To
open it, click your picture in the Social section of the main
People screen.) It works very much like anyones contact
card, letting you see all recent updates you made and any
notifications (posts) others have made. But it has two other
special options:
By default, People shows contacts in alphabetical order by

first name (or company name). To sort by last name instead,
open the People apps Settings pane and go to the Options
pane. Set the Sort My Contacts by Last Name switch to On.
You can also hide contacts from specific accounts in that
pane by deselecting them in the list of active accounts.
Click or tap View Profile to view and/or
modify your social networking profile in

that services website. The service is listed
below the View Profile link, and you can use
the
menu to select a different service if you
have multiple social networking services.
On the App bar, click or tap the Edit icon
to open Microsofts Windows Live service

in Internet Explorer. Here, you edit your
Microsoft account profile, including your
contact information, photo, bio, connected
social networking accounts, and how much
of the personal information is made public
(via the Privacy Settings link in the
Profile pane, which you switch to
by using the options on the left side
of the web page).
A master profile in Windows Live
Dummies.com
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 65
65
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Going Online
Chatting through Messaging

A
computing staple for decades, instant messaging

apps let you exchange messages with other online
friends. Unlike e-mail, instant messaging takes place,
well, instantly: The screen displays two panes: The right pane
displays the messages comprising the conversation, and is
where you type in your part of the chat. The left pane shows
all conversations (called threads); you can switch among
them by clicking or tapping the desired thread.
The Messaging app in the Start screen is where you do
your instant messaging in Windows 8. Even if your online
friends use different messaging services and programs,
the Messaging app can swap messages with them all.
To chat with someone, he has to be added as a friend to
your Windows Live account. To add people as friends to
Windows Live, open the App bar and click or tap the Invite
icon. This action opens the Windows Live website, where
you can add people who use any of the following accounts:
AOL Mail, Facebook, Gmail, Hi5, Hyves, LinkedIn, Outlook,
Tagged, or Windows Messenger. Theyre sent an invite via
e-mail and must respond
to become friends.
You can have multiple conversations, and the conversations

are divided into threads. The Threads section is at the left
of the Messaging app, and to switch among threads all
you need to do is click or tap the persons name whose
conversation you want to switch to.
Its all very simple to do after you set up your friends.
To delete a conversation, open the App bar and then

click or tap the Delete icon. And if you dont want to
be bothered with conversations for a while, click or
tap the App bars Status icon and choose Invisible
from the menu that appears. That keeps you from
showing up as available in your friends messaging
programs. To reappear to your circle of friends, click
or tap the Status icon and choose Online.
After a person confirms

you as a friend, his
instant-messaging
information is added
to the People app
you cant add it in the
contact card yourself.
At that point, you can
initiate an instantmessaging session by
clicking or tapping the
New icon on the App
bar, and then choosing
the persons name from
the People pane that
appears.
In the Messaging app,
enter your text in the
text field at the bottom
of the right pane and
press Enter to send that
text to the other person.
Youll see his reply in the
main window, with your
messages alternating in
the order sent.
An instant-messaging conversation in the Messaging app
66
06_9781118484791-ch03.indd 66
11/9/12 12:54 PM
Managing YourTitle
Life
Managing Your Life

IN THIS ARTICLE
Keeping
up with news, sports, finance, and weather Working with your calendar
Using documents Exploring the world
he Windows 8
Start screen environment gives you
a nice selection of apps
to keep up on the news
and other information
that matters to you in a
visually striking presentation. You can keep up on
news, weather, sports, and
finances by using content
provided by Microsofts
Bing search engine in apps
for each content type. There
are also Start screen apps
for travel and maps to
help you explore the world
or at least navigate it! And
you can keep your calendar under control using the
Calendar app.
Not all of the handy apps in
Windows 8 are provided in
the Start screen environment;
the Windows Desktop also has
some handy apps for everyday
use, such as its Notepad and
WordPad editing tools. But
whether youre using the Start
screen or Windows Desktop
environment, youll find
Windows 8 makes it easy to
stay informed and keep your
life organized.
ows 8 lifestyle apps
ur portal to the Wind
The Start screen is yo
You can get more Start screen apps from the Windows Store (through the Store app) both free
and paid to add capabilities and entertainment options to your PC. And you can install traditional
Windows Desktop apps that you download from online stores or buy from a retailer and install from a
CD or DVD.
Dummies.com
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 67
67
11/9/12 12:52 PM
Using Everyday Apps
Staying Up-to-Date
The four Bing-based information apps are handy for staying
informed: News, Weather, Finance, and Sports. All four are
Start screen apps and work similarly. The top story displays
on the first screen (in the case of the Weather app, the
current locations weather displays), and you can scroll
through panes for additional stories (or, for Weather, more
details such as historic data).
The News apps options:
Bing
Daily shows the top news stories

gathered by Microsoft. Scroll to see various
sections such as Business and World. Click or
tap a section label to see just stories in the
section and click or tap a story to read it in full.
My
News lets you create your own news

sections based on keywords you enter; these
sections appear only in this pane.
Sources lists all the places that Microsoft draws
its news from; click or tap a sources tile to see

stories just from that source.
The Sports apps options:
Today shows the top sport stories of the day.

Favorite Teams lets you track news and stats
on the teams whose names you enter there.
After you add your teams, click or tap a tile to
see news and stats for that team.
The other panes provide news for the specific
sports and leagues named in the tiles. The only

App bar control is to refresh the information,
such as for scores.
The Finances apps options:
Today gives the latest market figures and top

news stories.
Watchlist
lets you add stocks and funds to

track their performance; in the App bar, you
can pin the watchlist to the Start screen.
News shows the top financial and economic

news stories.
Rates shows a selection of rates for mortgages,

savings, and common loan types. Click or tap
a label to open a page with a list of providers
specific rates, based on your current location.
Currencies
The News and Sports apps have no App bars, whereas

the Finances and Weather apps do, though with minimal
controls. All four apps provide additional content options
on the Control bar (the bar you can display at the top of
some apps by right-clicking or, on a touchscreen, swiping
up from the bottom edge or down from the top edge).
displays current currency values

for dozens of countries. Click or tap the
Converter icon (on the first screen and on the
App bar) to have the app convert an amount
of your choice between the currencies of your
choosing.
World Market shows at a glance the current

performance of major stock market indexes.
Best of Web shows Microsofts recommended
websites for personal finance information and

resources.
68
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 68
11/9/12 12:52 PM
Managing Your Life

The Weather apps options:
Home shows the weather in the current location. Scroll to get more
details on the weather, such as the hourly forecast and historical

trends.
Places
lets you add specific cities to its page, so you can easily
check the weather in those cities. Click or tap a tile to get detailed
weather information for that city.
World Weather shows you at a glance the weather in major cities.
Click or tap a country or region on the map to zoom in and get

details for more cities in that area.
In the Weather apps Settings

charm, you set whether temperatures
are displayed in Fahrenheit or
Celsius, and you can temporarily
switch to the other system at any
time via the App bars Change To
icon.
Organizing Your Calendar

Keeping track of your
appointments, birthdays,
and so on can be difficult
to do in your head, and
thats why people use
calendars to track events.
PCs of course long ago
raised calendars to a new
level, with events that are
easily moved, can issue
reminders, and can be set
to repeat automatically.
If you use server-based
tools such as Exchange
or Google Calendar, you
can even monitor and
work with your calendar
from multiple devices.
Windows 8 has its own
Calendar app, a Start
screen application that
syncs to Exchange,
Google Calendar, and
Hotmail/Outlook.com,
so your calendar is
available and updated
across multiple devices.
It has all the capabilities
youd expect from a
calendar app: support for
multiple calendars (each
is color-coded), repeating
events, reminders, and
invitations.
The Calendar app
The optional Outlook application
Dummies.com
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 69
69
11/9/12 12:52 PM
Using Everyday Apps

The Calendar app is easy to use. When you open it the
first time, you get the month view; just scroll to see the
preceding and following months. Use the App bars Day,
Week, and Month icons to switch views to one that you
prefer at the moment. For example, the month view is great
to get an overview of your schedule, whereas the Day view
lets you see all the activities you need to do today in detail.
There are several activities that Calendar doesnt support
that you may use at work with Microsoft Outlook (usually
included with Microsoft Office) and an Exchange server.
For example, Outlook can display the local weather, search
your calendar, change the current time zone, create complex
recurring event patterns, and manage other calendars
delegated to you. If you have such needs, you should use
Outlook. But note that because Outlook and Calendar
both sync to Exchange, you can use both calendar apps in
Windows 8, using Calendar for basic needs and switching
to Outlook for the more complex options.
To add an event, click or tap in your calendar at the desired

date and time (the Day view works best for this). In the
screen that opens, enter the relevant details in the Details
pane at left. And in the pane at right, click or tap Add a
Title and type in a title for your event; then click or tap the
blank area between the horizontal line to type in any other
details or notes you want saved with the event. Here are the
options for the Details pane; note some will vary based on
the calendars capabilities:
Where: Type in a location for the event, such
as an address or a conference room. (This field

is optional.)
When: Click or tap the menus for the month,

day, and year to change them. By default, the
date you clicked or tapped on your calendar
when creating the event is displayed.
Start:
Use the menus for the hour, minute,

and AM/PM settings to set the start time for the
event.
How Long: Use the menu to select how long

Click or tap the Today icon in the App view to quickly
jump to todays calendar. Its a handy way to get
back to your current schedule after, say, entering the
no-classes dates for next years school calendar.
the event will run; choose Custom to specify

the end date and time. (The End option
appears to set this information.)
The Details pane when adding an event
70
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 70
11/9/12 12:53 PM
Managing Your Life

How Often: Use the menu to make this event
a repeating event, if you want. Your choices

are Once, Every Day, Every Weekday, Every
Week, Every Week, Every Month, and Every
Year. If you want more complex repeating
events, such as every third Wednesday, you
need to use another app, such as Outlook,
instead of Calendar.
Reminder:
Use the menu to set when you

receive a reminder alert about the appointment
(so you dont forget it or get there late!).
Status: Use this menu to indicate in Outlook

or other compatible shared calendars your
availability, so people know whether they can
schedule you for a meeting on their calendar.
The options are Free, Busy, Tentative, Out of
Office, and Working Elsewhere.
Calendar:
If you set up multiple calendar

accounts, use this to specify which calendar it
is assigned to. Doing so tells Windows 8 which
calendar to sync the event to. (You might have
one for work using Exchange and one for
home using Google Calendar, for example.)
Each calendar has its own color, so you can see
at a glance which calendar an event is on. To
set up accounts, open the Settings charm, click
or tap Accounts, click or tap Add an Account,
and choose the desired calendar service.
When you click or tap an event, it opens to show its Details

pane, where you can modify the event or simply review its
details. If the event is a repeating event, youll get a menu
with two options that you must select from before you can
edit the event:
Change One changes just that specific instance.

Change All affects all occurrences.
For any event youve opened, click the Save icon button (a
disk icon) to save any changes and the Cancel icon button
(an X icon) to close the event, both at the upper right of
the screen. To delete an event, open it and then click or tap
Delete from the App bar.
In addition to letting you set up calendars, the Settings
charm for the Calendar app provides other options you can
adjust for those calendars. In the Settings charm, click or
tap Options to open a pane with these options. Youll see a
section for each calendar account, with the Show switch to
control whether that account displays in Calendar and menus
to change the color of that accounts events. The calendar
associated with your Microsoft account also lets you select
the color for birthdays and U.S. holidays in the calendar.
Who: If you want to send invitations to other
people to join the event (if your calendar

account supports this feature), enter their
e-mail addresses in this field, separated by
commas.
Shockingly, Windows 8 doesnt look up names you

enter in the People app to find their e-mail addresses
for you. The people you invite get an invitation via
e-mail with an invitation file attached (it has the file
extension .ics), which many apps use to add the event
to their calendars automatically. In the Calendar app,
any invitations you receive are automatically added
to your calendar and indicated with a dashed line on
the left side. Click or tap such an invitation event to
open it and click or tap the Respond icon on the App
bar to accept or decline the invitation.
The Options pane for Calendars Settings charm
Dummies.com
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 71
71
11/9/12 12:53 PM
Using Everyday Apps
Reading and Writing Documents

Most people use PCs to work on documents, at least at
some point, including party invitations, homework, reports
for the office, and more. You probably also receive reports
and other documents to read and sometimes edit.
Documents tend to come in four common formats, though
there are others in use:
Using Reader
The Reader app is what it claims to be: a reader, for PDF
files. On the App bar, you have just a few options, most
related to viewing the PDF file:
Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF):
Find searches the PDF for the text you specify.

Cover Page, if selected, tells Reader that the first
Microsoft
Two
A read-only format that presents pages intact

with all layout and formatting. You can read
such documents in the Start screens Windows
Reader app.
Word (.doc and .docx): The

document format most of the world uses,
created by Microsoft and the standard for its
Word application but supported by many other
programs. The WordPad app that comes with
the Windows Desktop environment can create
and edit Word files, though it doesnt support
all of its capabilities.
Rich Text Format (RTF): A document format
widely supported, its similar to the Word

format in its capabilities for formatting. The
WordPad app also can create and edit RTF
files.
Text-only files (.txt): The original document

format supports just text no formatting and
is essentially the lowest-common-denominator
format for text. WordPad and the included
Notepad app on the Windows Desktop can
create and edit such files.
When you double-click or double-tap a file in File

Explorer or open a file from a website or in an e-mail,
Windows opens the file with the
application its set to use as the
default. For PDFs, that default is
Windows Reader; for Word and
RTF documents, its WordPad
or, if its installed, Microsoft
Word; and for text-only files, its
Notepad unless Word is installed.
page of the PDF file is a cover image and should

be viewed as its own page when you are in sideby-side view. (Thus, the icon appears only if
youre viewing the PDF in side-by-side view.)
Pages, One Page, and Continuous
control the appearance of the PDF file onscreen.
Two Pages shows pages side by side, whereas
One Page shows just one page per screen.
Continuous removes the space between pages,
as if the document were a long scroll.
Open
and Save As do what youd expect:

Respectively, they open a file from the PC and
save the current file to the PC. You navigate to
the desired hard disk and folder by using the Start
screens file navigator. The Save icon appears if
youve added highlighting or notes to the PDF.
More opens a menu with four options. Rotate
pivots the page in 90-degree angles because

some PDFs are rotated when created, and its
too hard to turn your head 90 degrees to read
them. Info shows information about the PDF,
such as the creation date and number of pages.
Bookmarks lets you jump to pages bookmarked
by the PDFs creator; a list of available bookmarks
appears in a menu. And Close File closes the
PDF, removing it from view.
The Reader app for viewing PDF files
72
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 72
11/9/12 12:53 PM
Managing Your Life

Heres how to perform basic tasks with Reader:
Navigate:
You typically move through the

PDF by scrolling its pages. But if the PDF has
bookmarks, they help you move to a desired
section faster.
Annotate:
You can do basic annotations in

Windows Reader as well. For example, select
text you want to highlight, and right-click the
selection to open a menu from which you
choose Highlight. (On a touchscreen, the
menu appears if you tap one of the selection
handles.) Selecting the text the same way again
gives you the Remove Highlight option.
Add
notes: You can add a note instead by

choosing Add a Note, typing in the notes text,
and clicking or tapping elsewhere in the PDF.
This places a note icon near the text. Rightclick or tap that note icon to open a menu with
the Open Note and Delete Note options.
Copy text: You can copy selected text by

choosing the Copy option.
Using WordPad
If you really want and need formatting but you lack
Microsoft Word or some other word processing software,
Windows WordPad will do.
Although WordPad is a Windows Desktop application, if
you have a physical keyboard, you can open it from the
Start screen by typing wordpad and choosing WordPad
from the results. Its also available as a tile in the Start screen
if you open the App bar and click All Apps. If you use it
a lot, you may want to pin it to the Start screen and the
Windows Desktop taskbar.
If youre just starting out with WordPad, keep these facts

in mind:
To
format text, select the text you want to

format and then choose the formatting you
want from the Font group on the Ribbons
Home tab. For example, to change the font,
click or tap the
menu next to the font name
and choose the font you like.
To
format a paragraph, simply click once

inside the paragraph and choose the formatting
you want from the Ribbons Paragraph group.
General
page layout is controlled by

settings in the Page Setup dialog box.
General page layout includes things such
as margins and whether the page is printed
vertically or horizontally. To open the dialog
box, choose FilePage Setup.
Tabs are complicated. Every paragraph starts
with tab stops set every half inch. You set

additional tab stops by clicking in the middle
of the ruler. (You can also set them by clicking
the tiny side arrow to the right of the word
Paragraph and then clicking or tapping the
Tabs button.) The tab stops that you set up
work only in individual paragraphs: Select one
paragraph and set a tab stop, and it works
only in the selected paragraph; select three
paragraphs and set the stop, and it works in all
three.
You can save in several formats, including
Words .docx (but not .doc), RTF, OpenOffice

(.odt, used by the free LibreOffice and
OpenOffice apps), and text-only (.txt; note
that all formatting and embedded images are
removed).
WordPad has a few worthwhile features: bullets and

numbered lists; paragraph justification; line spacing; superand subscript; and indent. However, WordPad lacks many
of the features that you may have come to expect from
other word processors. For example, you cant even insert
a page break, much less a table. If you spend time writing
anything but the most straightforward documents, youll
outgrow WordPad quickly. But if your documents are plain,
WordPad is a simple and free alternative to the much more
complex Word.
Using Notepad
WordPad
Reaching back into the primordial days of personal computing,

Notepad was conceived, designed, and developed by
programmers, for programmers and it shows. Although
Notepad has been vastly improved over the years, many of
the old limitations persist. Still, if you want a fast, no-nonsense
text editor (certainly nobody would have the temerity to call
Notepad a word processor), Notepads a decent choice.
Dummies.com
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 73
73
11/9/12 12:53 PM
Using Everyday Apps

Notepad understands only plain, simple, unformatted
text basically the stuff you see on your keyboard. It
doesnt support formatting such as bold text, embedded
pictures, and hyperlinks to web pages.
If you have a physical keyboard, you can open Notepad
from the Start screen by typing notepad and choosing
Notepad from the search results. Its also available as a tile
on the Start screen if you open the App bar and click All
Apps. If you use it a lot, save some time by pinning it to the
Start screen and the Windows Desktop taskbar.
When using Notepad, youll find the following tidbits of

advice very helpful:
Notepad
can handle files up to about

48MB in size. (Thats not quite the size of the
Encyclopedia Britannica, but its close.) If you try
to open a file thats larger, an alert box suggests
that you open the file with a different editor.
You can change the font, sorta. When you
first start Notepad, it displays a files contents

in the 10-point Lucida Console font. That font
was chosen by Notepads designers because
its relatively easy to see on most computer
monitors. To change the font thats displayed
onscreen, choose FormatFont and pick one
from the submenu. Just remember that the font
is used only for your visual pleasure while
working in Notepad the font isnt actually
applied to the text or saved in the document.
You can wrap text, too. Usually text extends
Notepad
way off the right side of the screen. Thats

intentional. Notepad, ever true to the file its
attached to, skips to a new line only when
it encounters a line break usually when
someone presses Enter, which typically occurs
at the end of every paragraph. But if you dont
want to scroll all the way to the right to read
every paragraph, choose FormatWord Wrap.
Manipulating text
Almost everyone who uses a PC knows the basics of manipulating text, but its worth a refresher especially if youre
using a touchscreen PC:
To select text with a keyboard: Move the cursor to the beginning of the text you want to select, hold down the Shift
key, and move the cursor to the end of the desired selection. Release the Shift key; the selected text is highlighted.
To select text with a mouse: Move the cursor to the beginning of the text you want to select, hold down the mouse
button, and move the cursor to the end of the desired selection. Release the mouse button; the selected text is
highlighted.
To select text with your finger: Tap on the first word you want to be in the text selection; the entire word is highlighted,
and two selection handles appear, one on either end. Tap and drag a selection handle to a new location; the text
between that new location and the originally selected word is now selected; you can use either or both selection
handles to change the range.
After you select text, you can copy and paste it, delete it, or move it:
To copy and paste text: Press Ctrl+C, click or tap the Copy button on the apps Ribbon (if it has one), or tap a selection
handle and choose Copy. Move the cursor to the destination (it may be another document and/app), and press
Ctrl+V, click or tap the Paste button on the apps Ribbon (if it has one), or tap a selection handle and choose Paste.
To delete text: Press Ctrl+X if you want to be able to
paste it later (such as to move it) or press Backspace or
Del to delete it without being able to paste it elsewhere.
To move text: Cut and paste it. In some apps, you
can simply drag the selection to a new location.
Depending on the app youre using, you may also have
formatting options for text selections, such as applying
italics or a colored background.
Selecting text via touch
74
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 74
11/9/12 12:53 PM
Managing Your Life
Mapping and Traveling the World

Windows 8 provides two apps to help you get around.
Theyre both Start screen apps: Maps and Travel. As
youd expect, Maps displays maps and provides directions
between any two locations. Travel combines travel guides
with flight and hotel booking features to help you explore
trip options and even make them happen.
Show Traffic: You can display or hide current
Using the Maps app
Directions:
The Maps app is simple and will be familiar to you if youve

used a maps app on a smartphone. But note it wont work
if you dont have a live Internet connection.
Here are the options available on the Maps App bar:
My Location: When you open Maps, it usually
displays your current location. If not, you can

quickly go there (assuming it can find you
Maps will ask your permission the first time to
detect your location) by clicking or tapping the
My Location icon on the App bar.
traffic conditions by using the App bars Show

Traffic icon. The app will color roads based on
their traffic: Green means traffic is flowing at or
near the speed limit, yellow means it is slow but
moving at an acceptable rate, and red means its
stop-and-go or simply stopped.
Click or tap the Directions icon
on the App bar to open the Directions pane,
where you tell Maps the start and end points of
your travel plans. Normally, the start point (A)
is your current location, but you can reverse
that by clicking the Reverse direction icon to
the right of the Start field. After you enter the
two locations, press Enter or click the button
to have Maps map out the trip. It displays each
stage at the top of the screen, and you scroll
through them until you reach your destination.
Map Style: You can adjust the view between

aerial photography and traditional roadmap by
using the Map Style icon on the App bar.
The Maps app in aerial view
Dummies.com
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 75
75
11/9/12 12:53 PM
Using Everyday Apps
Directions in Maps
The easiest way to see a map

of a certain location is to open
the Search charm and enter in
the destination, whether a city,
full address, or landmark. On a
touchscreen, you can also use the
pinch and expand gestures to zoom
in and out and then drag your
finger to scroll through the map
to explore the world as it moves
onscreen. On a non-touch-enabled
PC, two large icons appear on the
left side of the screen: + to zoom in
and to zoom out. Click and drag
the mouse to scroll the screen.
If you want to get directions from your current location but the Start field
doesnt display My Location, go to the App bar, click or tap My Location,
and then return to the Directions pane that usually adds your current
location as the starting point.
If your device has GPS, Maps will monitor your location as you move, so you
can follow your progress. Just dont be the driver when using that feature!
76
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 76
11/9/12 12:53 PM
Managing Your Life
Using the Travel app

The Travel app is also simple, though it offers several capabilities in its five panes:
Home:
This displays a
variety of travel features,
panoramic images, and
articles its where you
get to dream about where
you might travel.
Destinations: This displays
tiles for dozens of popular

vacation destinations. Click
or tap one to open a mini
travel guide.
Flights: This lets you book
flights via Kaya.com as well

as check flight status and
search schedules. You can
also see panoramic photos
of various airports if that
somehow appeals to you.
Hotels: This lets you make hotel reservations

and see panoramic photos of featured hotels.
Best of Web: This displays tiles for Microsofts

recommended travel sites; click a tile to go to
that website in Internet Explorer.
Searching for flights to book in the Travel app
Dummies.com
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 77
77
11/9/12 12:53 PM
Using Everyday Apps
Working with
Windows Tools
IN THIS ARTICLE
Handy
odds and ends Going under the hood
ood ol traditional Windows whats now called

the Windows Desktop has five handy utilities
that remain handy in Windows 8. If you dont
already know them, you should. Three are general-purpose
apps for all users: Character Map, Calculator, and Sticky
Notes. The other two, Task Manager and Command Prompt,
are meant for advanced users and IT support staff.
Although these utilities are Windows Desktop apps, you can

access them from the Start screen by clicking or tapping All
Apps from the App bar or, if you have a physical keyboard,
by typing their name and selecting them from the list that
appears. You may want to pin these utilities to the Start
screen and the Windows Desktops taskbar if you use them
frequently.
Utilities for Everyone

These three utilities are
broadly useful, and frankly, its
surprising that there isnt a Start
screen version of Calculator
nor an ability to create notesstyle tiles on the Start screen,
and that the capabilities of
Character Map arent available
in the Start screen through an
onscreen keyboard option.
Character Map
Using the Character Map, you
can ferret out characters out of
any font, copy them, and then
paste them into whatever word
processor you may be using
(including WordPad).
Windows ships with many
fonts collections of
characters and several of
those fonts include many
interesting characters that you
may want to use.
You can use many characters
as pictures arrows, check
marks, boxes, and so on in
the various Wingdings and Webding fonts. Copy them into your
documents and increase the font size as you like.
Character Map
78
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 78
11/9/12 12:53 PM
Working with Windows Tools

Character Map is handy to get characters you probably
never knew existed, but you can also get many accented
characters and special symbols using the onscreen keyboard
on touch-enabled devices. There are two ways:
Open
the symbols keyboard for the standard

onscreen keyboard by tapping the &123 key.
Then tap the key to get various special
symbols such as , , and . Tap the key to go
back to the first symbols list. (When done, tap the
&123 key to go back to the standard keyboard.)
In the regular onscreen keyboard, tap and hold
the following keys to get a menu of related

characters (often accented versions) you can
select instead: a, c, d, e, g, h, i, j, n, o, s, t, u, y,
', . (period), , (comma), and ?. In the symbols
mode (tap &123), tap and hold the following
keys to get their variants: ", .!, #, $, %, (, ), , =,
+, *, /, and the numerals 0 through 9. Tapping
the J key displays an array of emoticons.
To use the Calculator, type whatever you like on your

keyboard or click or tap the keys in the app. Press
Enter when you want to carry out the calculation. For
example, to calculate 123 times 456, you type, click, or tap
123 * 456 and then press Enter. (Dont use the X key for
multiplication it wont work!)
The Calculator comes in four modes: Standard; Scientific
(which adds sin, tan, x to the y, and the like); Programmer
(hex, octal, mod, and XOR); and Statistics (averages and
summations). You can also choose three options, which
appear as a separate slide-out Calculator to the right. Date
Calculation makes you choose dates from built-in calendars.
The Templates option gives you a quick way to calculate gas
mileage, lease payments, and simple mortgage amortization.
Sticky Notes
Do you really like little yellow sticky notes on your screen?
Really? Okay, you can get them in the Windows Desktop
by using the Sticky Notes app. (At least they wont get your
screen gummy!)
Sticky Notes, with copied text to get the special symbols and fonts
Here are a few tips for working with sticky notes:

Top: The special symbols available in the onscreen keyboards symbols mode.
Bottom: Many keys if tapped and held display alternate keys available.
Calculator
Windows includes a capable calculator. Actually, Windows
contains four capable calculators, with several options in
each one.
Create
a new sticky note: After you write

your first sticky note, you can create a new one
by clicking or tapping the + icon in the upperleft corner. Delete a note by clicking or tapping
the X icon in the upper-right corner.
Change the color: You can change the color
to something other than that eyestrain-inducing

cadmium yellow by right-clicking or tapping
and holding on the note and choosing a new
color from the contextual menu that appears.
Other options include copying and deleting
any selected text in the note.
Move
and resize: Sticky notes live on your

desktop. You can drag and move them like any
other denizen of the desktop. Theyre easy to
resize just drag a side or corner.
Show or hide all sticky notes: You can alterCalculators Unit Conversion mode
nately show or hide all sticky notes on your

desktop by clicking or tapping the Sticky Notes
icon on the taskbar it appears as long as any
notes exist.
Dummies.com
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 79
79
11/9/12 12:53 PM
Using Everyday Apps
Utilities for Advanced Users

You can skip the rest of this section if youre not a geek. Well, maybe not skip it
although aimed at advanced users, knowing about these utilities could come in handy one
day, even if its just to know what they can do so you can ask an advanced user for help
that you know he or she can deliver.
Task Manager
Sometimes, apps stop responding, or your PC seems to run
slowly for no apparent reason. Task Manager helps you deal
with these situations. It shows all running apps, and you
can select one that isnt responding and click or tap the End
Task button. Its a drastic action all unsaved changes are
lost but sometimes you have no choice.
If youre a more advanced user, click or tap More Details
to get the full Task Manager, which shows the Processes
pane. The Processes pane displays not just apps that are
running but also the pieces of Windows, called background
processes, that are running behind the scenes. You can see
how much memory, processor, and other resources each
task takes, so you can quickly identify something that is
out of control and hogging your PCs resources, forcing
everything else to slow to a crawl. You may need to end that
runaway task to get the rest of Windows running smoothly.
The other panes in Task Manager help you understand

your PCs operations in more detail and are best left
to support staff.
Command Prompt
This one is really for the supergeeky and the IT crowd:
Command Prompt opens a dialog box in which you enter
textual commands to perform actions on your PC. Youve
probably heard of DOS, the PCs original way of handling
commands. You had to know all those commands and
enter them exactly right. Well, Command Prompt basically
provides a way to do that in Windows, bypassing all its
graphical glory. But it can be useful when trying to repair
a PC or do some tasks that can be time-consuming in the
regular graphical Windows. Just be sure that whoever uses
Command Prompt knows what he or she is doing.
Task Managers More Details mode, showing the Processes pane
80
07_9781118484791-ch04.indd 80
11/15/12 11:15 AM
Taking Pictures
Taking Pictures
IN THIS ARTICLE
Taking
photos Setting camera options Cropping photos
odays digital cameras are little computers in their own right, so its natural that Windows 8 treats
them like
newfound
friends. Plug
a camera
into your PC
via a USB
cable, turn on
the camera,
and Windows
greets the newcomer, offering to copy
your cameras
photos onto
your computer.
Or just use the
camera built
into your PC, if it
has one most
tablet PCs and
many laptops
do. In many
cases, the quality of the built-in camera
is good enough. But if you want more
professional-looking pictures, you should
use a higher-end digital camera to take
those priceless memories.
The Photos app
After youve begun creating a digital family

album on your computer, please back it
up properly by turning on File History, the
automatic backup feature in Windows 8.
Computers will come and go, but your family
memories cant be replaced.
Taking Photos with Your PC

If your PC has a built-in camera or youve connected a
camera to it via the USB port, you take pictures with the
Camera app that lives in the Start screen. The first time
you use the Camera app, the screen displays Can Camera
use your webcam and microphone? Click or tap Allow to

continue. (If you dont want to continue, dont click or tap
Block unless you never expect to use this app. Instead,
simply go back to the Start screen.)
Dummies.com
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 81
81
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Photography in Windows 8
Then follow these steps to take a photo:
When the Camera app opens,

it shows whatever the camera
sees. If you have a PC tablet
with front and back cameras,
open the App bar and tap the
Change Camera icon to switch
between the two.
(Optional) To give yourself a

three-second delay, open the
App bar and click or tap the
Timer icon. The icons background becomes white so you
know its enabled.
To see your photos, you can

scroll to the left by using the
mouses wheel or ball. (Scrolling
up goes left and scrolling down
goes right.) Use the pinch gesture on a touchscreen to see
multiple images at once. Scroll
back to the rightmost image to
see a live image of what the
camera sees.
If you want to take a video instead of a still photo,

click or tap the Video Mode icon on the App bar. As
long as the icons background is white, the camera is in
Video mode. Click or tap the screen to begin recording.
You see a timer onscreen showing the length of the video
recording. Click or tap the screen again to end the video
capture. Be sure to click or tap the Video Mode icon to
switch back to still-photo mode.
Point the camera at whatever

you want to shoot. Note there
are no controls, such as Zoom
In or Zoom Out. Click or tap
the screen to take the photo.
If you enabled the timer, you
see a three-second countdown
onscreen before the image is
taken. When the image is taken,
you see it quickly head off past
the left edge of the screen into
your camera roll (and in the
Pictures library on your PC), and
you can take another photo.
Your camera roll is the set of pictures taken on your

PC, which the Camera app lets you review, similar
to how a digital camera lets you view the pictures
taken on it.
You can take a screenshot a picture of the current

screen by pressing
+PrtScr on a physical
keyboard. (A touchscreen or mouse equivalent is
not available.) The screen dims slightly to indicate
the capture, which is stored automatically in the
Screenshots folder in your Pictures library. Use this
technique to create your own documentation of
problems or something you want to see again later.
82
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 82
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Managing Photos
Adjusting Camera Settings

You can adjust the camera settings by using the Camera
Options icon on the App bar. It opens a pane with the
following options:
Photo
Resolution: Generally, you want the

highest resolution possible to get the best
image quality, though that also increases file
size. The ratio in parentheses affects how completely the photo will fill a screen or a print.
Odds are good that your screen is 16:9, so this
ratio may be best for you. Most prints are still
4:3, so you may want that ratio if you know
youre going to print the photo. Experiment
youll see the effect onscreen immediately.
Audio Device: Relevant to video rather than
photos, this option is limited to your built-in

microphone unless you have more than one
mic attached.
Video Stabilization: Stability is good, especially for handheld video, so turn it on to eliminate jitter when you shoot.
More: Choose More to see sliders for Brightness
and Contrast, as well as perhaps for Flicker,

Focus, and Exposure (depending on your cameras capabilities). Adjust the brightness and
contrast settings for the best exposure. Flicker
applies to video and generally should be 60 Hz
or higher. If you want to focus the lens yourself, set the Focus switch to Manual and then
use the slider to determine the focal depth.
Likewise, to set the exposure length, set the
Exposure switch to Manual and use the slider
to change its duration. Youll see onscreen the
results of changing the brightness, contrast,
and focus settings.
Editing Photos in the Camera Roll

When youre in the Camera apps camera roll, you can crop
and delete the photos youve taken. (Scroll to the left on a
touchscreen, or up using a mouses wheel or ball to see the
camera roll.) Navigate to the desired photo and then open
the App bar.
To crop a photo: Click or tap the Crop icon

on the App bar and then use the cropping han-
dles that display onscreen to crop the image

as desired. On the App bar, click or tap OK to
accept the crop or Cancel to return the photo
to its original state.
To
delete a photo: Click or tap the Delete

icon on the App bar.
Dummies.com
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 83
83
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Managing Photos
IN THIS ARTICLE
Importing photos from a camera Viewing photos Editing photos in the Paint app
ts great to be able to take photos from your computer,

but chances are good that you have photos youve
taken using other cameras or gotten from friends and
family that you want to bring into your PC to keep virtual

photo albums available for viewing at any time.
Bringing in Photos from a Camera

Most digital cameras come with software that grabs your
cameras photos and places them into your computer when
connected via a USB cable. But you often neednt install
that software or even bother trying to figure out its menus,

thank goodness. Thats because Windows 8 easily fetches
photos from nearly any make and model of digital camera.
84
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 84
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Managing Photos
To import your cameras photos into your computer, be sure the picturetaking mode is turned off and the camera is instead set to display or view
mode. (If you can see your cameras photos in the viewfinder or viewscreen,
youre ready to import them into your PC.) Then follow these steps:
Connect the camera to your PC

by using the cable supplied with
the camera. Typically, theres
a standard USB plug that goes
into your PC and a smaller plug
that goes into the camera. When
the camera is plugged into the
PC, turn it on and wait a few
moments for Windows 8 to recognize it.
Keep an eye out on the computer screens upper-right

corner. When you see the Tap
to Choose What Happens with
This Device prompt, click or tap
it to open it. (If it disappears,
turn off the cameras power,
turn it back on again, and wait
for the notice.)
Choose one of the options that

appears. You can import the
photos in the Photos app, in
File Explorer, or take no action.
Windows remembers the choice
you make here and repeats it
automatically the next time you
plug your camera into the computer.
If Windows 8 doesnt recognize your camera when you plug it in, Windows 8 needs a translator called a driver to
communicate with your camera. That driver usually comes with your cameras software, either on a CD or DVD or
available from the camera makers website. Run the cameras software to install the needed driver.
Heres a little more detail about your import options:
Import
Photos and Videos: Choose this

option to import your photos with the Photos
app in the Start screen environment. The
Photos app opens whenever you connect the
camera to it, and after a few moments shows
thumbnails of the photos it finds there, all
selected for import. Click or tap photos you
dont want to import so the check mark in the
upper-right corner disappears. Or click or tap
Clear Selection to deselect them all; then select
just those you want. Edit the filename at the
bottom of the screen if desired and then click
or tap Import to copy the photo to your PC.

After the files have imported, click or tap the
Close button to return to the Photos app.
Open Device to View Files: Prefer to use the
Windows Desktop? Then choose this option.

It leaves you staring at your cameras contents
as a little folder icon inside a File Explorer
window, where you can drag your photos to a
folder of your choice.
Take No Action: Changed your mind about

importing your photos? Click this option to
cancel and return later.
Dummies.com
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 85
85
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Importing photos from a camera via the Photos app
In the Photos app, you can import photos from a

connected camera at any time by clicking or tapping
the Import icon from its App bar.
Importing photos from a camera via File Explorer
You can also import files from e-mails, thumb drives,

websites, and any other mechanism that you would
use to download or copy files to your PC. After all,
photos are just a type of file. If you place these files in
the Pictures library, theyll be visible to the Photos app
and other apps that look for photos there.
Working in the Start Screens Photos App

Windows 8 is designed to favor the Start screens Photos
app, so it launches that app by default when working with
photos. The Photos app is designed for showing photos
without distraction perfect for gatherings of friends and
family. Plus it lets you see photos stored not just on your PC
but also on other PCs and from various websites.
Viewing photos
The simplest way to view photos on your PC is via the
Photos app. Open it from the Start screen by clicking
or tapping its tile. What you see in the app depends on
the images stored on your computer and whether youve
connected multiple PCs to the same Microsoft account and
enabled file fetching.
86
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 86
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Managing Photos
Following are the various categories of images that are
likely to display. (Windows 8 shows an example photo, if
available, in each categorys tile.) Note that you may need
to scroll to the right to see some of them:
Pictures Library: The Pictures library (includ-
ing its folders) contains any photos youve

saved there. Also stored there are any photos
in your camera roll that is, photos youve
taken by using the Camera app on the PC. If
you have no photos in either location, you
see the words Add Some Photos. Note: This is
the only tile that displays if you dont have an
active Microsoft account (that is, if youre using
a local account).
SkyDrive:
These photos are stored in

Microsofts cloud-based storage service,
SkyDrive, if you have a SkyDrive and have
uploaded images to it. If your PC cant sign
in to SkyDrive (perhaps you have no active
Internet connection), an alert appears below
the SkyDrive tile. Click or tap the tile to sign in.
Devices: If you have other PCs associated with
the same Microsoft account as this PC and have

enabled file sharing on them, you see a tile for
each. If any of those PCs is unavailable, you
see an alert under its name.
Facebook Photos: This tile shows the photos
youve uploaded to your Facebook account.

If you havent signed in to Facebook in the
Photos app, you see the words See Your
Albums; click or tap the tile to sign in.
To view a photo, click or tap its category tile. For those

categories that have folders, navigate through the folders to
the photos you want to view. You can scroll through the
photos in a folder or press the Page Up and Page Down
keys to navigate through them.
You can use one of these methods to see a photo in fullscreen view and then switch back to the folder view of all
the photos in that folder:
Click
or tap a photo to see it in full-screen

mode. Click or tap the icon in the upper-left
corner to go back to the available photos.
Press Ctrl+= to zoom in. Press Ctrl+ to zoom

out.
On a non-touchscreen PC, click the + icon in

the lower-right corner to zoom in. (Ignore the
Charms bar if it appears.) Click the to zoom
out. These icons dont appear if you have a
touchscreen.
On a touchscreen, use the expand gesture to
zoom in to photo at the center of the screen.

Use the pinch gesture to zoom out to the folder
view.
When viewing a photo from a folder with multiple images,

you may also see arrow icons on the sides of the screen that
you can click or tap to scroll to the previous or next photo.
When viewing a folder or a photo in it, you can have
Photos play a slideshow of that folders photos by clicking
or tapping the Slide Show icon on the App bar. Click or tap
the screen to stop the playback.
Flickr Photos: These photos come from your
account on Flickr, one of many photo-sharing

sites. As with Facebook, click or tap the tile to
sign in if you havent done so previously.
Dummies.com
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 87
87
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Viewing a photo in the Photos app
You can use the Hide option at the upper right of

any tile that isnt signed in to its PC or service to
hide a category you dont expect to use. If you do
hide a category, you can redisplay it via the Settings
charm in Photos; theres a switch in the Photo Settings
for each service and PC associated with the same
Microsoft account.
The Settings charm in Photos also has a switch that

turns on or off the rotation of the images for each
service that displays in Photos. When Shuffle Photos on
the App Tile is enabled, the Start screen tile for Photos
shows not the standard icon for Photos but an image
from one of your libraries, and that image changes
periodically. Turn the switch to Off to get the static icon
for the tile instead (which can be easier to find).
Deleting photos in the Start screen

When youre viewing folders of photos in the Photos apps
Picture Library, you can select photos for deletion. (You
cant delete photos from other sources from the Photos
app.) To do so, open the App bar and then select the
photos to delete:
To select an individual image, right-click it

or drag it up or down slightly. A light blue
border and check mark on the upper-right
corner appear, so you know its selected. To
deselect an individual image, right-click it or
drag it up or down slightly; the border and

check mark disappear, so you know its no
longer selected.
To select all images in a folder, click or tap
the Select All icon on the App bar. Click or

tap Clear Selection to deselect all photos. Note:
You cant select photos from different sources,
such as Pictures Library and SkyDrive.
To delete the selected files, click or tap the
Delete icon on the App bar.
88
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 88
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Managing Photos
Using the Windows Desktops Pictures Library

Your Pictures library, found on the Navigation pane hugging
the left edge of every File Explorer folder, easily earns
kudos as the best place in Windows 8 to store your digital
photos. When Windows 8 imports your digital cameras
photos, it automatically stuffs them there to take advantage
of that folders built-in viewing tools.
Viewing photos
To peek inside any folder in your Pictures library, doubleclick the folders icon, and the folders contents appear.
The Ribbons View tab works best when youre viewing or
organizing photos. Click or tap the View tab and, if youre
using a mouse, hover over each option, from Extra Large
Icons to Details. As you hover the pointer over an option,
the photos change to show you what the view will look like.
The Pictures librarys Sort By option offers oodles of ways
to sort quickly through thousands of photos by clicking
different words, dates, and tags listed on the Sort By menu.
The Sort By options include:
Sorting photos in File Explorer
Date: This option sorts the photos by the day
you added them to your computer, a quick

way to find photos added this week.
Tags:
If youve added tags descriptive

words to your photos when importing them
from your camera, you can find misplaced
photos more easily by sorting them by their
tags.
Date
Taken: Handy for viewing photos in

a timeline, this sorts them by the order you
snapped them. This works best when viewing
large groups of photos in a single folder.
Dimensions: This option sorts them by physical size, letting you know which ones hog
the most disk space. (Its a handy way to find
videos youve accidentally taken with your
camera.)
By sorting photos in different ways, you can usually ferret

out the particular shot youre seeking. The following tips
also increase your chances of locating a particular photo:
Spot a blurred or an ugly photo? Right-click or
tap and hold and then choose Delete from the

contextual menu that appears. Taking out the
garbage makes the good photos easier to find.
Remember those tags you entered when import-
ing your photos from your camera through the

Windows Desktop? Type any photos tag into
the Pictures librarys Search box, located in its
top-right corner, to have Windows 8 quickly display photos assigned with that particular tag.
When viewing a photo, open the App bar and then

click or tap the Set As icon. This action opens a menu
that lets you use that photo as the image displayed
for your choice of Lock Screen, App Tile (the tile that
displays for the Photos app in the Start screen), or
App Background (the background when you open the
Photos app).
Want
to cover your entire desktop with a

photo? Right-click or tap and hold the picture
and choose Set As Background from the contextual menu that appears. Windows immediately splashes that photo across your desktop.
Hover your mouse pointer over any photo to
see the date it was taken, its rating, size, and

dimensions.
Fixing rotated pictures

In the old days, it never mattered how you tilted your
camera when taking the photo; you simply turned the
printed photo to view it. Many of todays computer
screens dont swivel, so Windows 8 rotates the photo
for you if you figure out how.
The trick is to right-click or tap and hold any photo that
shows up sideways. Then choose Rotate Clockwise or
Rotate Counter Clockwise from the contextual menu.
Dummies.com
D
i
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 89
89
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Viewing a slide show

Windows 8 offers a simple slide slow capability that displays
one photo after another. Its not fancy, but its a built-in way
to show photos to friends crowding around your computer
screen. Start the photos flowing across the screen in either
of these two ways:
When in your Pictures library or folder, go to

the Ribbons Manage tab and then click or tap
the Slide Show icon.
When viewing a single photo in the Windows
Show button in the array of controls below

the image preview. (To open Photo Viewer,
right-click or tap and hold an image and then
choose Preview from the contextual menu that
appears.)
Either way, Windows immediately darkens the screen, fills
the screen with the first picture, and then cycles through
each picture in the folder. (If you dont want all the photos
in that folder to be in the slide show, select the photos you
want to play before starting the slide show.)
Photo Viewer, click the large, round Play Slide
Editing Photos Using Paint

There are some great photo-editing tools out there, such
as Photoshop Elements, for retouching and otherwise
enhancing photos. But if you dont want to spend the
money, you can do basic editing in the Paint app that comes
with the Windows Desktop.
To be safe, copy any photos you want to work on so you
always have the original in case your editing goes horribly
wrong.
After launching Paint, press Ctrl+O or click or tap Open
from the Ribbons File tab; then navigate to the file you want
to work on. Because Paint opens photos full-sized, you may
see only a portion of the photo. In the lower-right corner
of the Paint window, click or tap the Zoom Out button
(the icon) or drag the slider to the left. Zoom in and out as
necessary to work with different areas of the photo.
Many photos can be improved by cropping, which means
keeping just part of the photo by cutting out distracting
elements. You might crop a photo to concentrate on its most
important part. To crop, click or tap the Ribbons Home tab
and then click or tap the Selection tool in the Image section.
In the photo, drag a marquee (a selection rectangle) over the
area you want to keep everything outside this area will
be deleted. With practice, you can change the area selected
by dragging the tiny square handles that appear in each
corner and in the middle of each side. When youre happy
with the crop area, click or tap the Crop tool. Paint deletes
everything outside the selection area.
The other tools that you might find useful in Paint are the
Resize and Rotate tools, which are also available in the
Image section of the Ribbons Home tab.
If youre happy with your changes, save the file by pressing
Ctrl+S or clicking or tapping the Save button on the Ribbons
File tab.
Cropping an image in Paint
90
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 90
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Sharing Photos
Sharing Photos
I
ts great to show people your photos from your computer

when theyre in the same room as that computer. But chances
are good that youll want to share your
photos with
people who
arent always
at hand. Plus,
sharing them
through other
services means
you have access
to duplicate
copies of your
photos in case
your PC gets lost
or its hard disk
goes kaput.
E-mailing photos as
attachments in Mail
E-Mailing and Sharing Pictures Online

You can use the Internet to share your photos in two ways:
You can send photos via e-mail, or you can upload them to
an online service:
Uploading photos to an online service: If
you subscribe to a social network service such

as Facebook or to a photo-sharing service such
as Flickr, upload your photos to them via your
browser and the upload controls these services provide on their website to your account.
Those youve given access to can then see your
pictures.
E-mailing photos: Its easy to e-mail photos.
In Mail, Outlook, or whatever e-mail program

you use, compose the e-mail and address it
the usual way; then use the file-attachment
capability to select the files (photos, in this
case) you want to send. Then send off the
e-mail! Just keep the total size of the attachments to something manageable many
e-mail services wont send or receive e-mails
whose attachments total to more than a few
megabytes.
Dummies.com
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 91
91
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Heres how to attach files such as photos in the Start screens Mail app:
Compose your e-mail message

as normally.
Click or tap each desired file to

attach; note the check marks
that appear next to selected
files.
Open the App bar and click or

tap the Attachments icon.
Click or tap the Attach button

to add them to your e-mail
message.
In the Files screen that appears,

navigate to the desired folder or
library.
Finish composing and addressing your e-mail and then click or

tap the Send icon to send it.
To remove an attachment before sending the e-mail,

right-click or tap and hold its preview image in your
e-mail; then choose Remove from the contextual menu
that appears.
92
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 92
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Sharing Photos
Copying Photos to a CD or DVD

Saving photos to a recordable CD or DVD is a great way to both archive your photos and give them to others, such as a
gift for the grandparents of the youngests birthday party. Follow these steps:
Go to the Windows Desktop

and open the Pictures library.
Select the photos you want to
place on a recordable disc.
Then go to the Ribbons Share

tab and click or tap Burn to
Disc. Windows will ask you to
insert a black recordable disc in
your DVD drive. (Be sure it can
burn, or record, CDs and DVDs.
For years, most new drives have
been able to do so.)
Windows then asks how you

want the disc to be prepared:
Select Like a USB Flash

Drive if you intend for other
computers to read the disc.
Windows 8 treats the disc
much like a folder, letting
you copy additional photos
to the disc later. Its a good
choice when youre backing
up only a few pictures,
because you can add more
to the disc later.
Select With a CD/DVD

Dont have enough space on the CD or DVD to hold
all your files? Unfortunately, Windows 8 isnt smart
enough to tell you when to insert the second disc.
Instead, it whines about not having enough room
and doesnt burn any discs. Try burning fewer files,
adding more until you fill up the disc.
Player to create discs that

play on CD and DVD
players attached to TVs.
After you write to the disc,
its locked so you cant
write to it again.
Youre then asked to provide
a name for the disc. Do so and
then click or tap Next. Click the
Burn or Burn to Disc button
again, if necessary.
The key to printing nice photos is buying nice (and

expensive) photo paper and using a photo-quality
printer with the manufacturers inks. Ask to see printed
samples before buying a printer and then buy that
printers recommended photo-quality paper
Dummies.com
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 93
93
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Printing Pictures
You can print old-fashioned pictures, for adding physical
photo albums, placing on refrigerators, and using in
Christmas cards. The Windows 8 Photo Printing Wizard
offers nearly as many options as the drugstores photo

counter, printing full-page glossies, wallet prints, and nearly
anything in between.
To print your photos, follow these steps:
Select the photos in the Pictures

library.
On the Ribbon, go to the Share

tab along the top menu and
click or tap Print. Or, rightclick or tap and hold any of
the selected photos and choose
Print from the contextual menu
that appears.
Here are the options in the Print Pictures window:
Printer: Windows 8 lists your default printer

your only printer, if you have only one in
the top-left menu. If you own a second printer
that you use only for photos, choose that
printer from the menu.
Paper size: Windows 8 lists paper sizes on this

menu in case you want to print on something
besides normal 812-x-11-inch photo paper.
In the Print Pictures window, set

your printer, paper size, quality, paper type, photo layout,
and the number of times to
print each picture. (If you dont
set anything, Windows 8 prints
one copy of each photo across
an expensive sheet of 812-x-11inch photo paper.) Make sure
you have photo paper in your
printer and then click or tap
Print.
Copies
of Each Picture: Choose anywhere

from 1 to 99 copies of each picture.
Fit Picture to Frame: Leave this check box

selected so Windows 8 fills the entire sheet
with the photo. (This option may slightly crop
your photos edge for a better fit. Also, if your
photo is low-resolution, this option will make
it look blocky.)
Quality: Leave this set to 600 x 600 dots per inch
for most photo printers. If youre printing on a

regular printer, set it to 300 x 300 dots per inch.
Paper Type: Select the type of paper youve

placed in your printer, usually Photo Paper.
Layout:
On the Print Picture windows right

edge, choose how Windows 8 should arrange
the photos on the page. For example, you can
print each photo to fill an entire page, print
nine wallet photos, or print something in
between. Each time you select an option, the
wizard displays a preview of the printed page.
Most photo developers print digital photos with much

better quality paper and ink than your own printer
can accomplish. With the high cost of photo paper
and ink cartridges, using photo developers often costs
less than printing photos yourself. Check your local
photo developers pricing and ask how you should
submit your photos by CD, via memory card, or
over the Internet.
94
08_9781118484791-ch05.indd 94
11/9/12 1:40 PM
Listening to Music
Listening to Music
IN THIS ARTICLE
Playing
your own music Creating playlists Buying more music
istening to music is one of those

activities that people enjoy in almost
any venue: while working,
relaxing on the
couch or at the
beach, commuting, dancing at a party,
and so on. For
years, computers
have been able
to play music,
both through connected earbuds or
headphones and
through attached
speakers.
Windows 8 carries
that
musical
tradition forward,
integrating
the
ability to play your
own music with an
online music store
where you can buy more to download to
your PC.
Listening to the Music

on Your PC
You can play compatible music MP3, AAC (MPEG-4), ASF, and WAV
files from the Music app in the Start screen environment or from
Windows Media Player in the Windows Desktop. Both play the music
stored in your My Music folder in the Music library, and both can play
music stored in other locations.
The Music app
When you first double-click

or double-tap a music file in
the Windows Desktops File
Explorer, youre asked whether
to set Music or Windows
Media Player as your default
music player. You can still use
either player as desired, but
the default player is the one
that will open when you open
a music file from File Explorer.
Dummies.com
09_9781118484791-ch06.indd 95
95
11/9/12 1:54 PM
Music and Video
Playing music through

the Music app
When you launch the Music app from
the Start screen, the opening screen of
the app might make you think that its
is simply a place to buy music from
Microsofts online store, Xbox Music. But
the Music app is actually a music player
that you can use to listen to your music.
The trick is to scroll to the left of the page
to see the music files in your My Music
folder.
Any compatible files in your My Music
folder display in the Music apps albums
list. The standard view shows a file for
each album and playlist you have. To
switch to a view that shows all music
sorted by song, album, artist, or playlist,
tap the My Music link in the top-left
corner.
Understanding the controls

To play an album or song from the
My Music screen, click or tap its tile or
name and then click the Play button that
appears.
At the bottom of the screen, the App bar
opens with playback controls: Shuffle,
Repeat, Previous, Next, and Pause/
Play. The App bar disappears after a
few seconds, but you can reopen it at
any time by right-clicking on the screen or
swiping up from the bottom edge or down
from the top edge. A reminder on the controls:
Shuffle plays the albums or playlists songs in
random order. The icons background becomes

white when Shuffle is enabled.
The Music apps standard view of your PCs music (top) and its My Music view,
where you can sort music several ways (bottom)
On the App bar, youll see an image of the album cover, the
name of the current song, its album, its artist, and a timer
that shows how far into the song you are.
Repeat repeats the current playlist or album

once all the songs are played. Again, the icons
background becomes white when Repeat is
enabled.
Previous moves to the previous song in the

album or playlist, and Next moves to the next
song.
Pause halts the playback. The icon becomes

Play; click or tap it to resume playback.
You dont have to leave the Music app at this

current view. Click or tap on the screen to close
the controls; if youre viewing the My Music
screen, click or tap the icon to return to the
Xbox Music screen.
96
09_9781118484791-ch06.indd 96
11/9/12 1:54 PM
Listening to Music
Controlling playback from the Now Playing view

You can also play music from the opening screen of the
Music app the one that showcases current albums
available for purchase at the Microsoft Xbox Music Store.
At the bottom-left corner, you see a Now Playing progress
bar for the currently playing song, as well as the songs title
and artists name. Click or tap that information to open the
Now Playing screen, which puts a collage of album covers
in the background and displays the songs title and album
in a larger size.
Click or tap the screen to get the basic playback controls:
Previous (the < icon), Pause/Play, Next (the > icon), and the
scrubber bar. The scrubber bar shows how far into the song
you currently are. Click or tap it to reveal the scrubber head,
which you can then drag to move to any point in the song.
If youre playing a song and then switch to another app,

the music continues to play. On the Start screen, the
Music apps tile shows the current song. To pause or
change songs, you must return to the Music app.
To adjust the volume (from any app, not just Music), open
the Settings charm and then click or tap the Volume icon
at the bottom of the pane. This action opens a volume
slider you drag to increase or decrease the volume. Click
or tap anywhere to close that slider. PC tablets and some
laptops also have physical volume buttons.
To play a music file not in your My Music folder, open

the App bar in the Music app and click or tap the
Open File icon; then navigate to the desired music
file.
Working with playlists

Youre not restricted to organizing your
music by songs or albums. Windows
supports playlists, which are collections
of songs you put together yourself the
digital version of the venerable mix tape.
The Music app has a playlist called Now
Playing that shows whatever song is
currently playing, plus any songs you add
to the playlist. As you peruse your music
and open albums or click or tap songs in
the My Music screen, you can add a song
to the Now Playing playlist by clicking
or tapping the Add to Now Playing icon
that appears.
Adding songs to a playlist
Dummies.com
09_9781118484791-ch06.indd 97
97
11/9/12 1:54 PM
Music and Video

But rather than picking and choosing each song every time you listen to music,
you probably want to create playlists you can use over and over, such as for
parties, road trips, or commuting. To add songs to a playlist, follow these steps:
Select a song (the entire album

is presumed to be your desired
selection if you dont select a
specific song).
Open the App bar by rightclicking or, on a touchscreen,

swiping up from the bottom
edge or down from the top
edge.
The most recently used playlist appears in the Music apps

main screen (in the My Music section) along with your
albums. To play other playlists, you have two choices,
depending on where the playlist was created:
Created in the Music app: Click or tap the
My Music link and then the Playlists link. Click

or tap the desired playlist from the tiles that
appear.
Created
in Windows Media Player: Open

the App bar and click or tap the Open File
icon. Then click or tap the Playlists button in
the screen that appears. Click or tap the desired
playlist in the list that appears. (See the next
section for more on Windows Media Player.)
To remove a song from a Music apps playlist, open the

playlist, click or tap the song, and then click the Remove
from Playlist icon that appears.
To delete a Music app playlist, open it and click or tap the
Delete icon on the App bar. Its that easy, so be careful not
to delete a playlist accidentally!
You have a couple options.

(a.) Tap the Add to Playlist icon,
which opens a menu showing
any existing playlists and the
New Playlist option. Tap an
existing playlist to add the song
or album to it. (b.) Or click or
tap New Playlist to create a new
playlist and add the music to it.
In the dialog box that appears,
enter the playlists name and then
click or tap Save to create it.
Playing music through Windows

Media Player
If youve used earlier versions of Windows, youre likely
familiar with Windows Media Player, the Windows Desktop
app for playing music and videos. Its still available in
Windows 8, and it works just as it did in Windows 7.
Windows Media Player shows any music in your My Music
folder, organized by album (the default setting). But you
can change the sorting using the Artist, Album, and Genre
options in the Navigation pane at left, and you can change
how the songs sort by clicking the desired title option, such
as Rating or Title.
Heres how to play your music in Media Player:
To
play a song, double-click or doubletap it. At the bottom of the Windows Media
Player window, you can find several playback
controls: Shuffle, Repeat, Stop, Previous, Play/
Pause, Next, and Volume. They work just like
the similar controls in the Start screen app.
98
09_9781118484791-ch06.indd 98
11/9/12 1:54 PM
Listening to Music
To create playlists in Windows Media Player,
click or tap the Create Playlist button on the

toolbar and then enter the playlist name in the
field that opens in the Navigation pane, under
the Playlists item. Then drag music files into that
playlist in the Navigation pane to add them.
To play a playlist, just tap the playlist. While
Playlists created in the Music app arent available to

Windows Media Player.
a playlist is playing, you can add songs to it by

dragging them into the Play pane that appears
at right.
To delete a song
from a playlist,
open the playlist
so the Play pane
appears, select the
song to remove,
and press Delete
not Backspace.
(To access the
Delete key on
a touchscreen
keyboard, open
the full keyboard.)
Playing songs in Windows Media Player
Buying Music Online

The Music app and
Windows Media Player
both let you buy music
from Microsofts online
store, though the Music
app is much more
focused on enticing you
to do so.
To buy music, you must
be signed in to your
Microsoft account or
your Xbox Live account.
Both apps automatically
connect to that account
if youve signed in
elsewhere.
Buying music in the Music app
Dummies.com
09_9781118484791-ch06.indd 99
99
11/9/12 1:54 PM
Music and Video

In the Music app, scroll through the panes Xbox Music
Store (where you can sort music by genre, new releases,
and other criteria) and Most Popular to see whether
anything catches your interest.
Click an albums tile to get more details and then use the
buttons to buy the album, preview a song (which plays it
on your PC), or play the album on your Xbox (if you have
an Xbox Music account). Click outside the album preview
to close it.
You can manage your account, check past purchases,
redeem credits, and manage your billing options in the
Music apps Settings charm, in its Accounts pane.
In Windows Media Player, its not as easy to buy music,
so the Music app is a better option. If you insist on buying
music through Windows Media Player, note the Shop link
that appears below the album icon in the Play pane as

music is playing. Click it to open the Microsoft music store
and then navigate it to choose the music you want to buy.
What makes this difficult is that the online store doesnt fit
well onscreen in Windows Media Player, so it can be hard
to navigate.
You can buy music online from other stores, not just
Microsofts. Just make sure the files are in a compatible
format and not copy-protected, so they can play in
Music or Windows Media Player.
Importing your CDs into your PC

In a process known as ripping, Windows Media Player can copy your CDs to your PC as MP3 files, the industry standard
for digital music. But until you tell the player that you want MP3 files, it creates WMA files a format that wont play on
iPods, or many other music players.
To make Windows Media Player create songs with the more versatile MP3 format instead of WMA, and then copy a CD
to your PCs hard drive, follow these steps:
Click or tap the Organize button in

the top-left corner of the Windows
Media Player window, click
Options, and click the Rip Music
tab. Choose MP3 instead of WMA
from the Format menu and nudge
the audio quality over a tad from
128 to 256 or even 320 for better
sound.
Open Windows Media Player,

insert a CD into your PC, and
click or tap the Rip CD button in
Windows Media Player.
The app connects to the Internet,
identifies your CD, and fills in the
albums name, artist, and song
titles. Then it begins copying the
CDs songs to your PC and listing
their titles in the Windows Media
Player library. Thats it! Well,
unless it cant identify the CD, in
which case, proceed to Step 3.
Right-click or tap and hold the first

track in the list of songs and choose
Find Album Info.
If youre connected to the Internet,
type the albums name into the
Search box and then click or tap
Search. If the Search box finds
your album, select its name, click
or tap Next, and click Finish.
If youre not connected to the web
or the Search box comes up empty,
right-click or tap and hold the first
song, click or tap Edit, and enter
the song title. Repeat this process
for the other songs titles, album,
artist, genre, and year tags.
Windows Media Player automatically places your ripped CDs into your Music library.
100
09_9781118484791-ch06.indd 100
11/9/12 1:54 PM
Watching Videos
Watching Videos
IN THIS ARTICLE
Playing
your own videos Buying and renting movies and TV shows
The Video app
atching movies and TV shows on a computer is

a popular activity. Its very common for college
students, whose dorm rooms often dont have
much space for TVs, so the computer doubles as a TV. But
as anyone who travels knows, watching movies commercial offerings or home videos on a tablet or laptop in
flight or in a hotel room is a great way to while away your
downtime, and it usually beats the selections available in

airplanes and hotels.
The Windows 8 apps for watching videos are very similar
to its apps for listening to music, so if you know how to
use one, you pretty much know how to use the other. And
on the Windows Desktop, you use the same app for both
music and video: Windows Media Player.
Windows 8 no longer plays DVDs; you must buy the Media Center Pack upgrade available only for
Windows 8 Pro to watch DVDs on it. You also need the Media Center Pack to play any MPEG-1 and
MPEG-2 video files you may have. You can upgrade Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro so you can get
the Media Center Pack, but you cant upgrade Windows RT to Windows 8 Pro, so PC tablets using
Windows RT cannot play DVDs or MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video files.
Dummies.com 101
09_9781118484791-ch06.indd 101
11/9/12 1:54 PM
Music and Video
Watching Movies and TV Shows

You can play compatible video files
such as MPEG-4 files from the Video
app in the Start screen environment or
from the Windows Media Player on the
Windows Desktop. Both play the videos
stored in your My Videos folder in the
Video library, and both can play videos
stored in other locations.
Playing video through

the Video app
Just as the Music app appears to be just a
front end to Microsofts music store, the
Video app appears to be a front end to
Microsofts video store. But as with the
Music app, you can play any compatible
videos those in the MP4 (MPEG-4),
ASF, or AVI formats stored in your My
Videos folder by scrolling to the left of
the opening screen.
If you click My Videos, you can switch
the view to show all videos organized
by Movies, TV shows, or Other (such as
videos you create or download from the
web). The videos are sorted by duration,
title, or date added.
To watch YouTube or other webbased videos, go to the desired

website in your browser.
When you first double-click or

double-tap a video file in File
Explorer, youre asked whether
to set Video or Windows
Media Player as your default
video player. You can still use
either player as desired, but
the default player is the one
that will open when you open
a video file from File Explorer.
The Video apps standard view of your PCs videos (top) and its My Videos view, where you
can sort videos several ways (bottom)
To play a video, click or tap its tile or

name thats all it takes.
For a few seconds, playback controls
appear onscreen; click or tap the screen
to reveal them at any time. You can also
open the App bar to display playback
controls. The onscreen controls offer
just the Play/Pause button and the
scrubber head, which you can drag
to move within the video. The App
bar provides those controls plus the
Previous, Next, and Repeat icons.
When you switch away from the video
playback window, the video keeps
playing. In the Video app, you can
see a thumbnail of the videos current
scenes on the App bar. If you move
to the main Video app screen, which
shows the featured video rentals and
purchases at the Windows Store, the

bottom-left tile shows a preview of the
current video, using either its preview
icon or, if none is available, the first
scene in the video. On the Start screen,
the Video apps tile shows the name of
the current video.
To pause or change videos, you must
return to the Video app.
To adjust the volume (from any app,
not just Video), open the Settings charm
and then click or tap the Volume icon
at the bottom of the pane. This action
opens a volume slider you drag to
increase or decrease the volume. Click
or tap anywhere to close that slider.
PC tablets and some laptops also have
physical volume buttons.
102
09_9781118484791-ch06.indd 102
11/9/12 1:54 PM
Watching Videos
To play a video
file not in your
My Videos folder,
open the App bar
in the Video app
and click or tap
the Open File icon;
then navigate to
the desired video
file.
Playing video through

Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player shows any videos in your My Videos
folder, organized by title (the default setting). But you can
change the sorting by using the labels above the video list:
Title, Length, Release Year, Genre, Actors, Rating, Size, and
Parental Rating.
Double-click or double-tap a video to play it in the playback
window that appears. Enlarge the window to see the movie
in a more comfortably large frame and then click or tap the
window to get the playback controls: Shuffle, Repeat, Previous,
Play/Pause, Next, and Volume.
Playing videos in Windows Media Player
Seeing available videos in Windows Media Player
Dummies.com 103
09_9781118484791-ch06.indd 103
11/9/12 1:54 PM
Musicand
andVideo
Video
Music
Buying Movies and TV Shows

The Video app lets you
buy or rent videos from
Microsofts online store,
something you cant do
through Windows Media
Player.
To buy or rent videos,
you must be signed in to
your Microsoft account
or your Xbox Live
account. The Video app
automatically connects
to that account if youve
signed in elsewhere.
In the Video app, scroll
through the panes such
as Movies Store and
Television Store to see
if anything piques your
interest, and click or tap a
tile if it does. Otherwise,
click or tap a link such as
Movies Store or Television
Store to open a screen
that lets you narrow
down video suggestions
by genre, last nights TV
shows, free videos, TV
networks, movie studios,
and recent releases.
Click or tap a movie or
TV shows tile to get more
details. For a TV show,
click or tap View Seasons
to see available seasons
for the show, and click
the desired season to go
to its details screen. On
the details screen, click or
tap the Buy or Rent button to purchase or rent the show. Youll
see the price only after clicking or tapping, but dont worry: You
have to confirm the transaction before actually being charged.
Buying a movie in the Video app (top) and buying a season of a TV show (bottom)
You can manage your account, check past purchases, redeem

credits, and manage your billing options in the Video apps
Settings charm, in its Accounts pane.
You can buy movies and TV shows online from other

stores, not just Microsofts. Just make sure the files
are in a compatible format and not copy-protected,
so they will play in Video or Windows Media Player.
104
09_9781118484791-ch06.indd 104
11/9/12 1:54 PM
Burning CDs and DVDs

Title
Burning CDs and DVDs

T
o create a music CD with your favorite songs, you

can create a playlist containing those songs, listed in
the order you want to play them. Then insert a blank
recordable CD into your PC and click or tap the Ribbons
Burn tab in Windows Media Player. Take up the players
offer to import your current playlist and then click or tap the
Start Burn button.
But what if you want to duplicate a CD, perhaps to create

a disposable copy of your favorite CD to play in your car?
Or make copies of your kids CDs before they create pizzas
out of them?
Unfortunately, Windows 8 has no Duplicate CD option.
Instead, you must jump through the following hoops to
create a new CD with the same songs in the same fidelity
as the original CD.
Burning music to a CD from a burn list in Windows Media Player
Dummies.com 105
09_9781118484791-ch06.indd 105
11/9/12 1:54 PM
Music and Video

Follow these steps to create a new CD:
In Windows Media Player, click

or tap the Ribbons Organize tab
and then click Options.
Click or tap the Rip Music tab,

change the Format box to WAV
(Lossless), and click OK. Then
insert a blank recordable CD
into your CD drive.
Right-click or tap and hold

the album in your library and
then choose Add ToBurn List
from the contextual menu that
appears. If your burn list already
has some listed music, click or
tap the Clear List button to clear
it and then add your CDs music
to the burn list.
A simpler solution is to buy CD-burning software from your

local office supply or computer store. Unlike Windows
Media Player, most CD-burning programs have a Duplicate
CD button for one-click convenience.
The process for importing and burning DVDs is much
harder, requiring special software to do so, such as Roxios
suite of tools (www.roxio.com). Many people like to copy
their commercial DVDs for viewing on their computers, but
tools such as Roxios wont do that, for fear of violating
copyright restrictions.
In Windows Media Players

Navigation pane, click or tap
the Music category and choose
Album to see your saved CDs.
Click or tap the Start Burn

button.
In the United States, its perfectly legal to copy music

and videos youve bought, as long as its for your own
personal use, but its illegal for software makers to provide
the tools to break the copy protection. But the French
company HandBrake (www.handbrake.fr) isnt subject to
U.S. law, and its HandBrake software lets you import your
commercial DVDs for playback on your PC. Just be sure to
honor the law and keep those copies for personal use, such
as for playback on airplane trips.
106
09_9781118484791-ch06.indd 106
11/9/12 1:54 PM
Getting to Know Settings

IN THIS ARTICLE
Using
quick-access settings
The Start screens PC Settings
verybody is different. And if you look at their computers, youll find that theyre often different as well,
with different icon arrangements, folder names,
applications, and personalization settings. After all, a PC is
a personal computer, which means its adjusted to meet the
needs and preferences of its user.
Windows 8 has two primary locations where you set the
preferences for how you prefer to work, as well as to
configure how your PC itself and its peripherals (monitor,
keyboard, printer, mouse, network, and so on) work. One
The Windows Desktops Control Panel
is the PC Settings screen, accessible from the Charms bar

whether you are in the Start screen or Windows Desktop,
and the other is the Control Panel, which you access from
The PC Settings screen and the Control Panel have some
overlap setting up a new peripheral in one sets it up in
the other. But other preference controls, such as for screen
resolution, are just for the one environment. The Control
Panel also has many more controls than PC Settings, most
of which (but not all) are focused on the Windows Desktop.
Dummies.com 107
10_9781118484791-ch07.indd 107
11/9/12 1:17 PM
Customizing Windows
Using the Easy-Access Settings

The Settings charm, which you can open from the Start
screen and Windows Desktop, always shows six options
at the bottom that provide quick access to commonly used
controls:
Networks: The currently connected network
is displayed, if youre connected to a network.

Click or tap the icon to see a list of available
networks you can connect to. You can also
enable Airplane Mode, which turns off all
radios on the PC so it can be used safely in
flight.
Volume:
This shows the speakers current

volume level. Click or tap it to open a slider to
adjust the volume.
Screen: Click or tap this icon to open a slider
to adjust the screens brightness. Theres also

a button above the slider that disables or
enables screen rotation on a tablet; you can
also press +O to toggle rotation on or off. A
lock appears on the Screen icon in the Settings
charm when rotation is locked.
Notifications: Click or tap this icon to open a
menu that lets you disable all notifications for

your choice of one hour, three hours, or eight
hours.
Power: Click or tap this icon to open a menu
that lets you put the PC to sleep, shut it down,

or restart it.
Keyboard:
Click or tap this icon to open a

menu where you can open onscreen keyboards for other languages (if you have set
any up) as well as the handwriting-recognition
keyboard. To open a different keyboard, tap
and hold on the desired option for a second
or two. If your PC has only one keyboard, the
icon wont respond to a click. (All touchscreen
devices have at least two keyboards: your
default language keyboard plus the handwriting keyboard.)
At the top of the Settings charm are options for the currently
open app (or for the Start screen, if its displayed). At the
bottom is the Change PC Settings link.
For the Start screen itself, you have just a couple
configuration options in its Settings charm, and you can
access them both by clicking the Tiles link at the top of the
Settings charm:
Set the Show Administrative Tools switch to On
to have tiles for these expert controls available

in Start screen.
Click the Clear option to remove all personal

information from live app tiles this
essentially sets them so they no longer display
current information in the Start screen, such
as your current photo roll, e-mail messages,
and local weather.
108
10_9781118484791-ch07.indd 108
11/9/12 1:17 PM

On the Windows Desktop, the options at the top of the Settings charm provide
quick access to the Control Panel. Click or tap the Control Panel link to open the
Control Panel, click the Personalization link to open the Personalization control
panel, or click the PC Info link to open the System control panel.
The options available for each pane in the PC Settings

screen and in the Control Panel may vary from device
to device based on the features each supports.
Typically, features not supported by the current device
dont display at all or are grayed out to indicate they
arent applicable.
Configuring via the PC Settings Screen

Most of the time, youll use the PC Settings screen to
customize your PC. Its available in a snap by opening the
Settings charm and then clicking or tapping the Change
PC Settings link at the bottom. You get 14 panes to choose
from in the list at left:
Personalize
Here, you set the background images for the lock screen
and Start screen, the photo used for your account, and the
apps that can display their
status in the lock screen.
play a sound for such alerts and display them in the lock
screen. Finally, the Notifications pane shows all apps that
can issue notifications, with an On/Off switch for each to
control those that you want to get notifications from.
Search
In this pane, you set which apps appear in the Search charm
by using their On/Off switches. You also control whether
Windows tracks your search history. Search history has two
Users
Here,
you
switch
accounts, set or change
your password, and add
user accounts.
Notifications
Use this pane to enable
notifications, which
briefly appear in both
the Start screen and
Windows Desktop in the
upper right-corner of the
screen; click or tap them
to open the app issuing
the notification. You can
also set Windows 8 to
The Search pane in PC Settings
Dummies.com 109
10_9781118484791-ch07.indd 109
11/9/12 1:17 PM
Customizing Windows
components, each of which has its own On/Off switch. One
orders the items in the Search charm based on how often
you search them, and the other tracks your search results
to use them in the future when you search for the same or
similar items.
Share
Here, you set which apps appear in the Share charm for
sharing content; use the On/Off switches to enable or
disable sharing through them. In the Frequent section,
theres one On/Off switch to put at the top of the share list
the apps you use most frequently to share with. Another
On/Off switch controls whether a list displays of how you
share most often; you also can set how many items appear
in that list. The two lists are very similar, so you may find
you can turn one off.
General
This pane has a lot of controls:
Time: Use the Time section to set the current
time zone and whether to adjust automatically

for Daylight Savings Time.
App
Switching: The App Switching section

enables or disables the use of the
key to
switch between the current and last-used app,
as well as enables the swipe gesture from the
left side of the screen to open the last-used app.
Touch Keyboard: This section controls how
the onscreen keyboard works. You can enable

or disable the display of suggested corrections as
you type, the insertion of a space after selecting
a suggested word, automatically adding a
period when you type two spaces, automatically
capitalizing the
first word in a
sentence, entering
Caps Lock mode
when doubletapping the Shift
key, playing a
sound as you tap
each key, and
enabling the fullkeyboard option
for the onscreen
keyboard.
Screen: The one option here enables a PC to
automatically adjust screen brightness based

on how much light is in the room. (It uses
its camera to sense that light, so PCs with no
cameras dont offer this setting.)
Language: Click or tap Language Preferences
to open the Language control panel on

the Windows Desktop, where you can add
languages that Windows provides onscreen
controls and supports local keyboards for, such
as in a multilingual environment.
Available
Storage: Click or tap View App

Sizes to see how much space each app is
taking on your PC. This setting can be useful
if youre running out of space and want to see
whether little-used apps might free up enough
space if uninstalled (which you do in the Start
screen or via the Programs control panel on the
Windows Desktop).
Refresh
Your PC without Affecting Your

Files: Click or tap Get Started to reinstall
Windows without deleting your data files to try
to eliminate any oddities that may be affecting
performance.
Remove
Everything and Reinstall

Windows: Click or tap Get Started to erase the
hard disk and reinstall Windows from scratch.
Advanced
Startup: Click Restart to open a

screen where you can choose to restart as is,
troubleshoot your PC (including changing its
startup options), or shut down. If you click or
tap Troubleshoot, a new screen opens that lets
you refresh the PC, reset it, or open advanced
options such as enabling Safe Mode.
Spelling:
In this
section, you can
set Windows 8
to auto-correct
misspelled words
as you type and
to highlight words
it suspects are
misspelled as you type.
The General pane in PC Settings
110
10_9781118484791-ch07.indd 110
11/9/12 1:17 PM
Devices
Use this pane to add and
delete peripherals such as
printers and keyboards.
Wireless
Use this panes controls
to turn off all radios
(Airplane Mode) so the
PC is safe to use in flight.
You can also enable
specific radios, such as
Wi-Fi and cellular (3G or
LTE). Turning off radios
when not needed can
conserve battery life.
Ease of Access
Three controls here help make Windows easier to use
if you have weak sight: High Contrast, Make Everything
on Your Screen Bigger, and Cursor Thickness. You also
can set what pressing
+Volume Up activates: nothing,
the Magnifier (which magnifies the text under it as you
move it across the screen), Narrator (which speaks the
names of items and controls onscreen), or the onscreen
keyboard. The Magnifier and Narrator options are useful
if youre visually impaired; the Onscreen Keyboard option
is a nice convenience for anyone. The final option, Show
Notifications For, controls how long notifications display in
the upper-right corner of the screen.
Sync Your Settings

If youre using a Microsoft account, you can sync the settings
on one PC to all other PCs signed in to the same account.
This synchronization is on by default, but you can turn it
off or back on here. You also can adjust which settings are
synced in the list below; all are on by default. Finally, at
the very bottom are two options for syncing over a metered
connection, such as a cellular connection. You can turn
off syncing over metered connections entirely or just when
roaming; the right choice depends on whether your carrier
limits you to a specific amount of data usage on its network
(most do) or just when youre roaming on other networks.
HomeGroup
Click or tap the Create option to enable simple sharing with
other users on your local network.
Windows Update
Windows 8 automatically installs updates to Windows and
its antivirus software, Windows Defender. You can force
a check for new updates by clicking or tapping Check
for Updates Now. If there are updates available, you see
The Ease of Access pane in PC Settings
blue text in the paragraph above that button (the wording

varies); click or tap it to see the details of whats available
and, optionally, install it immediately rather than wait for
Windows 8 to do it on its normal schedule.
If you use the Search charm and click or tap the

Settings icon, you can search the Start screen apps
settings and all the Windows Desktop control panels,
Action Center troubleshooters, help entries, and much
more for what youre seeking help with. (The Action
Center is a control panel in the System and Security
group that helps you troubleshoot problems on your
PC.)
Configuring via
Control Panel
The Control Panel on the Windows Desktop should be
familiar to anyone whos used earlier versions of Windows
Microsoft has used the Control Panel for years to let users
personalize their PCs and manage hardware, security, and
other aspects of Windows.
Because there are dozens and dozens of controls, only
some of which any one individual will want to change, you
should set aside a couple hours on a rainy day and just go
through each control panel to see whether an option looks
like something youd want to adjust. The control panel
Dummies.com 111
10_9781118484791-ch07.indd 111
11/9/12 1:17 PM
Customizing Windows
groups that are most
likely to have aspects
youd want to adjust are
Appearance
and
Personalization
Clock,
Language,
and Region
Default
Programs
control panel
in the Programs
group
You can open the Control

Panel in several ways:
The Windows Desktops Control Panel, showing its home screen
In the Settings charm in either the Start screen
or the Windows Desktop, click or tap Control

Panel. (To jump straight to the Personalization
control panel, click or tap Personalization; to
jump straight to the System control panel, click
or tap PC Info.)
In
the Start screen, type control panel and

then click or tap it in the search results pane
that appears. (You need a physical keyboard
to do this search.)
In either the Windows Desktop or Start screen,

press +X to open the Power User menu and
then choose Control Panel.
The Control Panel has eight main groups of controls. Click

or tap the desired group or a link to a specific function
within that group. Use the and icons at the upper left
of the Control Panel window to navigate back and forth
through the control panels youve visiting (as if it were a
browser whose web pages you were traversing). Use the
icon to move up a level in the Control Panel hierarchy.
When you open a Control Panel group, a list of specific
control panels appears in its left side; click or tap a link to
go to that specific control panel. Click or tap the Control
Panel Home link on the left to get back to the main Control
Panel windows list of groups.
Heres what the eight Control Panel groups offer:
System and Security: The 11 control panels
here mix a variety of features. Many are related

to security and troubleshooting. As for the few
others, use Power Options to enable powersavings mode if desired, choose when to turn
off the monitor after the computer has been
idle, and determine when to put the computer
to sleep after its been idle.
Consider pinning the Control Panel to the Windows

Desktops taskbar so its readily accessible in that
environment.
Network
and Internet: The three control

panels here let you manage your local
network (including Wi-Fi connections), your
Homegroup, and the settings for the Internet
Explorer 10 browser.
Hardware
and Sound: The nine control

panels here manage the internal and external
hardware for your PC: printers, monitors,
speakers, microphones, CD and DVD drives,
pen input and touchscreen gestures, and
location detection.
Programs: This control panel is where you
can remove or modify Windows Desktop

apps. Its also where you can set what
happens when you insert DVDs, CDs, USB
thumb drives, or other storage media to the
PC. For various file types, you can specify that
theyre always opened in a specific app, that
nothing happens, or that youre asked what
to do. You can also set which applications
are the default for specific file types use
this control panel to favor Start screen apps
or Windows Desktop apps (as you prefer)
consistently in Windows 8.
112
10_9781118484791-ch07.indd 112
11/9/12 1:18 PM

User
Accounts and Family Safety: The User

Accounts control panels Change User Account Type
option lets you assign a user as an administrator (if
your current account also has administrator rights),
which gives that person full control over the PC. The
first person who sets up an account has administrator
rights by default; everyone else has standard rights,
which limits them to controls over just their files
and account. (You add new user accounts from the
PC Settings screen, not in the Control Panel.) The
Manage Another Account option lets you change the
administrator rights for another user or delete that
account, as well as apply Family Safety controls to it.
Appearance and Personalization: The six control
panels here let people customize the Windows

Desktop to match their personalities and readability
needs:
Personalization: You can set the desktop background,
colors of window borders, size of menus and other
window items, and sounds that play (or not) for
specific alerts and actions (such as closing an app).
Display: You can adjust the size of text in all
Windows Desktop windows, as well as change the
screen resolution (which can fit more items on the
screen but make them all smaller, or make everything
bigger but allow fewer items to be onscreen at the
same time).
Taskbar: You can set how control and notification
icons display on the taskbar: not at all, always the
icon, or only when theres a notification to you.
Folder Options: You can hide file extensions (such as
.exe for programs and .docx for Word files) in File
Explorer, and it lets you specify whether files open
with a double-click (or double-tap) or with a single
click (or tap) in File Explorer.
Fonts: You can add fonts to Windows for use by all
Windows Desktop apps.
Ease of Access: This control panel is explained
later.
Clock,
Language, and Region: These control

panels are ones youll use rarely after your initial
setup.
Date and Time: You can set the date, time, and
time zone, and you can add more clocks so
you can see multiple time zones at a glance.
Language: You can tell Windows which
languages you want it to work in so you
can use keyboards and menus in the desired
languages.
Region: You can tell Windows which regions
settings to use for dates (such as 10/26/2012
The Appearance and Personalization control panel group (top) and the Clock, Language,
and Region control panel group (bottom)
for Oct. 26, 2012 in the United States versus

26/10/2012 in Europe) and numerals (such as
1.5 for the decimal point in the United States
and 1,5 in Europe).
Ease of Access Center: This group lets you
set display magnification, visual cues, text-tospeech narration, speech recognition, and input
device settings to help the visual-, hearing- and
motor-impaired.
Dummies.com 113
10_9781118484791-ch07.indd 113
11/9/12 1:18 PM
Customizing Windows
Working with Hardware

IN THIS ARTICLE
Adding
hardware in the Start screen Setting up hardware from the Windows Desktop
hances are good that your PC isnt completely selfsufficient: Youve added a keyboard, mouse, and
monitor and probably also connected to a printer.
You likely have some USB sticks or other memory cards.
Even if you own a PC tablet, you probably connect to at
least some of these hardware devices some of the time, such
as to get a larger screen, a physical keyboard, and a mouse
when docked at your desk.
Windows auto-detects a lot of hardware plug it in and it
just works. Thats typical for mice, monitors, storage devices,
and keyboards. Some devices, such as printers, need special
software called drivers that tell Windows how to use them,
and if Windows recognizes the device and has an Internet
connection, it often can get those drivers on its own and set
up the devices without your assistance.
Most of the time, all you have to do

is turn on the device and connect the hardware to your
computer, such as via a cable to the USB port (the most
common port used to connect devices to PCs). If the device
uses Bluetooth or other wireless technology, make sure its
wireless radio is on.
When that doesnt work, you may need to install the drivers
manually and then connect the device to the computer. If
a disc came with the hardware, you can install the drivers
from that disc. If not, you can download the drivers from
the manufacturers website and then install them by doubleclicking the installation file in your My Documents folder or
wherever you downloaded them to (so you need to be on
the Windows Desktop to do this). But in many cases, you
wont have to do that work.
114
10_9781118484791-ch07.indd 114
11/9/12 1:18 PM
Working with Hardware

But what do you do if you connect a device, even after installing the driver,
and the PC still doesnt see it as connected? First, try to use the Settings charm:
Go to the Settings charms PC

Settings screen and open its
Devices pane. A list of devices
appears.
If the device is listed but its

label says Offline, turn it
off and then back on to see
whether that connects it. If not,
try restarting the PC. After that,
if the device is still listed as
disconnected, right-click or tap
and hold its name; then click or
tap the icon that appears to
the right of its name to delete it.
Turn off the device, make sure
it is connected or its wireless is
on, and turn it back on.
If the device isnt visible at all in

the device list, click or tap Add
a Device. If the device appears
in the list that appears, click or
tap it to install it.
If you cant get the device to show as

connected in the Settings charm, its
time to try using the Control Panel
instead:
Go to the Windows Desktop,

open the Control Panel, and in
the Hardware and Sound group,
click or tap Devices and Printers.
Click or tap Add a Device (or

Add a Printer if youre adding a
printer).
If the list of devices that appears

includes your device, click or
tap its name and then click Next.
If Windows cant find the driver,
it asks whether you want to try
to download it from Windows
Update or use a disc that has
the drivers. Click the appropriate
option and follow the prompts
to install the driver. If necessary,
go to the manufacturers website
to see whether you can download the needed driver. If so,
download and install it. If not,
contact the company for help.
Dummies.com 115
10_9781118484791-ch07.indd 115
11/9/12 1:18 PM
Customizing Windows
Some network devices, such as printers, may not

display in the list of recognized hardware, either in
the PC Settings screen or in the Control Panel. If you
can, try connecting them directly to the PC via a USB
or other cable (the needed cable almost always is
included with the device) so the PC sees them. After
that, the device is usually visible via the network. But
if not, ask the manufacturer for help.
The Device Manager control panel lets you update

drives and see a detailed list of all hardware inside
and connected to your PC. This is an expert feature
that you should use only with care.
Using the Devices charm

You may have noticed a charm named Devices on the
Charms bar. If you opened it, chances are good that you
saw only the Second Screen option, realized you have only
one monitor, and moved on. Like all the other charms, the
Devices charm shows only items that pertain to the app
thats currently open. So, if you see only the Second Screen
option, that just means it is the only device-related action
your PC can take in that current app (including the Windows
Desktop and Start screen).
But if you open an app that can use other devices, you
see them listed. For example, the Devices charm for the
Start screens Internet Explorer app shows any connected
printers. It also shows the virtual printer Microsoft XPS
The Devices charm is where you print from

when using Start screen apps, via its Print pane
Document Writer, which creates a PDF-like file of your

printout that you can view onscreen. If you have Office
2013 installed, an option labeled Send to OneNote 2013
also appears; clicking or tapping it sends the virtual printout
to that note-taking app.
Just click or tap the option for the device you want to use,
and Windows 8 opens a pane that shows that devices
options.
Remember: The Devices charm does not provide access to
devices in any Windows Desktop app. Instead, you use
an apps traditional controls, such as FilePrint or the
Ribbons controls, to access devices.
Printing from the Devices charm for a Start screen app

(top) and via the Print menu in the Windows Desktop
(bottom), here for Internet Explorer
116
10_9781118484791-ch07.indd 116
11/9/12 1:18 PM
Making Windows More Accessible
Making Windows
More Accessible
N
ot everyone
has the same
abilities, and
the folks at Microsoft
who created Windows
know that. So theyve
provided some ways
to adjust Windows
to work better if you
have different abilities than most. For
example, you can
make the screen and
its objects larger to
help deal with nearsightedness. You can
have Windows talk
you through screen
options if youre visually impaired. You can
have Windows use
visual alerts rather than sounds if your hearing is impaired.
And you can adjust how the mouse and keyboard work to
help control the PC despite having arthritis or other motor
issues.
As in most cases in Windows 8, some of these settings

reside on the Start screen, and some reside on the Windows
Desktop. In both environments, the controls are grouped
under the Ease of Access label.
The Start Screens

Ease of Access
Settings
In the Start screen, there are just a few settings all in PC
Settings Ease of Access pane that you can use to make
the Start screen more accessible. Note these features may
not work on a PC tablet, even if the options are available.
The four accessibility options are
The Ease of Access Center in the Control Panel
black background, which can make the text

and other objects more discernable. Note that
this control applies to both the Start screen and
Pressing Windows + Volume Up Will Turn
On: From this menu, choose Magnifier if you

want the +Volume Up shortcut to open the
magnifier, which enlarges the area around
your pointer. Choose Narrator if you want that
shortcut to cause Windows to start speaking
whats displayed onscreen. Note the Volume
Up button may be on your computer, monitor,
or keyboard (or more than one) and that
Windows may not recognize the Volume Up
button on all devices.
Make Everything on Your Screen Bigger:

Set this switch to On to enlarge the Start
screen. Note that in many apps, screens that
normally show two panes will be broken into
two screens, and you use the icon to get
back to the first in the pair.
High Contrast: Set this switch to On to invert
the screen colors, so Windows runs with a
Dummies.com 117
10_9781118484791-ch07.indd 117
11/9/12 1:18 PM
Customizing Windows
Cursor
Thickness:
Change this value to
a greater numeral to
thicken the cursor that
indicates your location
when clicking or tapping in a text field in a
Start screen or Windows
Desktop app.
The high-contrast view
The Windows Desktops Ease of Access Settings

The bulk of accessibility settings in
Windows 8 reside where they have
long resided in Windows: in the Control
Panels Ease of Access group.
The best way to use its many options
is to click or tap Let Windows Suggest
Settings in the Ease of Access group. Fill
out the quiz that asks you about your
eyesight, hearing, and motor skills. Click
or tap Next after each set of questions.
When youre done, Windows adjusts
itself to what Microsoft believes are
optimal settings for your abilities.
You can also click or tap the link to open
the Ease of Use group, where you can
access the Ease of Access control panel,
including the Ease of Access Center.
Click or tap the Ease of Access Center
link to view a list of eight categories of
settings you can visit in turn and adjust
as you prefer.
The quiz Microsoft provides to help determine optimal settings for your abilities
The Ease of Access control panel also

has a link for Speech Recognition.
Click or tap it to set up Windows
and a microphone so you can speak
commands and dictate text to Windows,
controlling it with your voice rather than
your hands.
118
10_9781118484791-ch07.indd 118
Enabling speech recognition
11/9/12 1:18 PM
Connecting to Networks
IN THIS ARTICLE
Network
basics Connecting to Wi-Fi networks Managing connections
ts hard to find a
home or an office
with just one computer. These days, most
people, even many kids,
have their own PC. That
means they need to share
an Internet connection.
And that means having a
network in place to connect the PCs to the shared
Internet device (usually
a cable modem or DSL
modem).
But such a network lets
you do more than connect
to the Internet from the
same modem; you also can exchange files with each
other and share devices such as printers. If youre a home
entertainment geek, you can use the network to stream
photos and movies to your HDTV if you own an Apple TV
or similar device. And if youre a small business or even
a geeky family, you might use the network to connect
The network view in
File Explorer
everyone to a shared hard disk for file repositories that

everyone can access or back up to.
Networks may sound intimidating, but Windows 8 makes
them easy. When your network is active, you can see whats
connected to it in the Window Desktops File Explorer by
clicking or tapping Network in the Navigation pane.
Making the Connection

There are two kinds of networks you can use, and you
often have both:
Ethernet network: Devices are connected via

cables to a central manager called a router.
Wi-Fi
network: Devices connect via radio

waves to a router (or sometimes an access
point, which has to be connected via Ethernet
to a router).
These days, most routers provide both Ethernet and Wi-Fi;

in fact, most cable modems and DSL modems come with
built-in routers, so you can have just one box to plug into
the wall. (If your cable or DSL modem has just one Ethernet
port and no Wi-Fi, you connect a router to it via Ethernet,
and everything else connects to that router.)
An Ethernet connection is faster than a Wi-Fi connection,
but a Wi-Fi connection works anywhere youre in range
of the signal. The range varies but is generally 40 to 200
feet based on the routers radio strength and the kinds of
building materials in your home or office. (Concrete and
metal can block or degrade Wi-Fi signals.)
Every router has its own setup instructions, so refer to those
to get yours up and running. But chances are good that you
already did that long ago for previously purchased PCs.
Dummies.com 119
11_9781118484791-ch08.indd 119
11/9/12 1:16 PM
Windows Networking
Connecting via Ethernet

Connecting a PC to a router via Ethernet is simple: Plug
one end of the Ethernet cable into the Ethernet jack on the
router and plug the other end to the Ethernet jack on the
computer. If the router is properly set up and connected to
the Internet, youll get Internet access within seconds and
have access to any other devices on your own network.
Connect your PC to an Ethernet network via a cable
Connecting wirelessly
Getting your PC connected via Wi-Fi is easier in Windows 8 than in previous
versions. To connect to a nearby wireless network for the first time in Windows 8,
follow these steps:
1
check the status of the Network
icon in the icon group at the
bottom of the charm. If it shows
a Wi-Fi network is available,
click the Network icon.
Windows lists all the wireless

networks within range of your
PC. Connect to the desired Wi-Fi
network by clicking or tapping its
name.
Click the Connect button.

(Tip: If you check the adjacent
Connect Automatically option
before clicking or tapping the
Connect button, Windows
automatically connects to that
network the next time youre
within range, sparing you from
connecting manually each time.)
Youre then asked whether you

want to enable sharing between
your PC and others on the network as well as connect to
any devices (such as printers)
detected. Click or tap the Yes or
No button. (Click No when in a
public place, such as a caf hot
spot, so others on this network
cant spy on your PCs data.)
If youre asked for a password,
provide it. Then click Next.
120
11_9781118484791-ch08.indd 120
11/9/12 1:16 PM
You can also use cellular 3G and 4G networks to connect to the Internet,
either using a built-in radio in a tablet or through a device called a MiFi.
Cellular carriers offer such access typically through monthly subscription
or pay-as-you-go plans, and they sell or rent any needed hardware. To
turn on such cellular access, open the Settings charm, click or tap Change
PC Settings, go to Wireless, and set the Mobile Broadband switch to On.
Getting to know the Networks icon

The Networks icons appearance in the Settings charm varies based on
your connection status. From left to right, here are the icons you may see:
Wireless Available
Wireless Unavailable
Wired Connected
Wired Unavailable
Some Wi-Fi networks require that

you enter a password to gain access.
You should require a password on
your own Wi-Fi network so strangers
cant get in and hijack your Internet
connection or, worse, access and
perhaps cause harm to your PC and
other network devices. You set up that
password requirement in your router,
not in Windows. We suggest you
choose the WPA-2 level of security
and that the password you require be
short and memorable yet use mixed
characters, such as One+One=2.
Managing the Connection

When your PC is connected to the desired network, theres
rarely a need to disconnect. If youre using a wired Ethernet
connection, just leave it plugged in all the time unless of
course when you need to move the PC to where the cable
wont reach! To disconnect a wired connection, just unplug
the Ethernet cable from your PC.
If youre using Wi-Fi, when your PC is out of signal range,
youre automatically disconnected, but youll automatically
be reconnected when youre back in range if you selected
the Connect Automatically option when first connecting. If
you didnt select that option, you need to click and tap the
desired Wi-Fi network again in the Settings charm when
youre back in range.
Heres some additional info on managing Wi-Fi connections:
Connect to a different Wi-Fi network: If

you want to change Wi-Fi networks where
several are available, just open the Settings
charm, click or tap the Networks icon, and
click the desired new Wi-Fi network from the
list.
Disconnect from a Wi-Fi network: If you

want to disconnect from the current Wi-Fi
network without switching to a different one,
right-click or tap and hold the connected
networks name and click or tap the Disconnect
button that appears.
Disable all wireless connections Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, and (if you have it) cellular: The

easiest way to disable all connections is to set
Disconnecting from a Wi-Fi network
the Airplane Mode switch to On in the Settings

charms Networks list. You use this mode when
on an airplane so as not to interfere with the
planes electronics during takeoff and landing.
Its also a great way to save on battery usage
for a laptop or tablet at times when you dont
need any of these services active.
Dummies.com 121
11_9781118484791-ch08.indd 121
11/9/12 1:16 PM
Windows Networking
services often have caps on how much data
you can use. The amount of usage appears
beneath the networks name, as well as the
Reset link, which you can use to set the usage
figure back to zero, such as when beginning a
new months data plan.
Set as Metered Connection: Use this option
to tell Windows the wireless connection is

metered that is, capped or paid by the amount
you use, such as for a cellular connection. That
way, Windows wont use this connection in some
circumstances. (For example, from the PC Settings
screens Sync Your Settings pane, you can disable
syncing of settings for metered connections.
Also, you can disable syncing for Store, Music,
and Video downloads in their respective Settings
charms.) You can change the connection back
to an unmetered one by choosing Set as NonMetered Connection in the menu.
The menu of options for a Wi-Fi network
More controls are available for your network connections.

To see them, right-click or tap and hold a networks name
in the Settings charm (note that not all options appear for
all types of network connections):
Show
Estimated Data Usage: Click or tap

this option to see how much traffic youve sent
and received over this connection. Its meant
for PC tablets that have cellular radios, whose
Forget This Network: Click or tap this option
to stop Windows from auto-connecting to the

network when in range.
Turn Sharing On or Off: This option opens a
pane where you can enable or disable sharing

of files, printers, and other resources with other
devices on the network.
View Connection Properties: Click or tap this
option to open a dialog box on the Windows

Desktop, where you can apply advanced settings to this connection.
The two panes of the settings dialog box for a network connection
122
11_9781118484791-ch08.indd 122
11/9/12 1:16 PM
Working with Homegroups

IN THIS ARTICLE
Homegroups explained Enabling and managing file
Making your printer available to others
sharing
reating a network between your computers makes it easier for them to

share resources: an Internet connection, printers, and even your files. But
how can you share some files while keeping others private?
Microsofts solution is called a homegroup. A simpler way of networking, a

homegroup lets every Windows PC in the house share the files nearly everybody
wants to share: music, photos, movies, and the household printer.
Homegroups arent limited to Windows 8 computers, either they work fine with
any Windows 7 computers on your network, as well. (Homegroups dont work
with Windows Vista or XP, unfortunately.)
Dummies.com 123
11_9781118484791-ch08.indd 123
11/9/12 1:16 PM
Windows Networking
Creating a Homegroup
Heres how to set up a new homegroup on a
Windows 8 PC, as well as how to let Windows 8 join
a homegroup you may have already set up with your
other networked computers:

click or tap Change PC Settings
to open PC Settings.
Dont know the homegroups

password? You can find it in the
Windows Desktops File Explorer
by right-clicking or tapping and
holding the Homegroup option in
the Navigation pane and choosing
View the Homegroup Password from
the menu that appears.
Click or tap the Homegroup

category on the left to open the
Homegroup pane. Then click or
tap either the Create or Join button.
(The button you see depends on
whether a homegroup has already
been set up and is detected by
Windows 8.)
If you click or tap the Create

button, a pane of options for what
you can share appears. Note that
the Documents, Music, Pictures,
and Videos options refer to files
stored in your My Documents,
My Music, My Pictures, and My
Videos folders, respectively.
Scroll down to see the password
others need to use to access the
shared items. (If your option was
Join and you clicked or tapped
it, youll be asked to enter the
password set by whoever created
the homegroup.)
Homegroups are handy if you dont want to share with others. If

you have multiple computers say, a laptop and a PC tablet
you could use a homegroup and shared folders to move or copy
files easily between them.
124
11_9781118484791-ch08.indd 124
11/9/12 1:16 PM
Managing Access to Shared Files

When you create or join a homegroup, you can choose
what libraries to share only from your own account. If other
account holders on that same PC also want to share their
libraries, they should do this: In File Explorer, right-click or
tap and hold Homegroup in the Navigation pane and then
choose Change Homegroup Settings to open a dialog box
of sharable items. There, they need to add check marks
to the items they want to share and then click or tap Save
Changes.
When you share libraries on homegroups, you want your
friends and family to marvel over your photos of Costa
Rican tree frogs, for example, but you dont want anybody
to delete or otherwise mess up your original files. The good
folks at Microsoft know that, so by default, any files in your
shared files are read-only they cant be deleted or have
any changes saved to that folder. (People can work on
copies stored on their own PCs.)
If you do want people to be able to delete and change
shared files, you need to put the files in a public folder.
But where are the public folders? You dont see them in My
Documents, My Pictures, and so on in File Explorer. Theyre
there, but theyre concealed in the Navigation pane. Click or
tap a folder in the Libraries section to reveal its subfolders. If
youve enabled sharing for that folder, you see two folders
lists, such as My Music and Public Music. Simply drag files
into Public Music (or whatever public folder is appropriate)
so other people on the network or with accounts on your
PC can work on the files directly. They too will need to go
to the public folder via File Explorers Navigation pane to
see the contents.
The Navigation pane is where you expose the public folders where others
can edit and delete files, not just view them
Sharing between PCs and Macs

These days, Apple Macintoshes and Windows PCs are increasingly sharing quarters. So how do you share files between
them over the network? On a Mac, you first need to enable file sharing for Windows by following these steps:
1. Go to the Sharing system preference application (choose System Preferences and then click the Sharing icon)
and select File Sharing.
2. Click Options to open a settings sheet where you select the Share Files and Folders Using SMB (Windows) option.
Select the accounts whose files you want to share and then click Done.
3. Add folders to the Shared Folders list by clicking the + icon. Be sure to set permissions to Read & Write, Read Only,
or Write Only (Dropbox) as appropriate for each shared folder.
4. Take note the name of the Mac in the pane, ignoring the .local part, and then close the system preference window.
With Windows file sharing enabled on the Mac, open File Explorer on your PC and enter \\Mac name in the text field at
the top of the window, to the right of the Network label. The Macs shared folders become visible and now work just like
any other folders in Windows.
The Mac wont show up in the standard view of connected items you see when you click or tap Network in File Explorers
Navigation pane, but you can return to it easily at anytime by clicking or tapping the unnamed menu between the icon
and icon at the top of File Explorer, beneath the menus, and then choosing its name from the list that appears.
Dummies.com 125
11_9781118484791-ch08.indd 125
11/15/12 11:11 AM
Windows Networking
Accessing What Others Have Shared

To see the shared libraries
of other people on your
PC and network, open File
Explorer on the Windows
Desktop and click or tap
the Homegroup option
in the Navigation pane.
File Explorers right pane
promptly lists the names
and icons of every person
(whether on your PC or
on the network) who has
chosen to share files on
an existing homegroup.
Click the Join Now button
below that list and enter
that accounts homegroup
password to gain access
to the shared files and
resources.
After youve joined the
homegroup, you can
browse each persons
shared folders simply by
double-clicking or doubletapping that persons
name in the homegroup
window.
You can do more than browse those folders:
Opening: To open a file on a shared library,
double-click or double-tap its icon, just as you

would any other file. The appropriate program
opens it. If you see an error message, the file
uses an app you dont own. Your solution? Buy
or download the program from the Internet or
ask the person to save the file in a format that
one of your apps can open.
Copying: To copy a file from another persons

homegroup, drag it into your own library.
Alternatively, select the file and press Ctrl+C to
copy it; then go into the folder where you want
to put the copied file and press Ctrl+V to paste it.
Browsing shared homegroups in File Manager
Sharing a Printer
on the Network
If youve turned on the homegroups, Windows makes
sharing a printer extraordinarily easy. After you plug a
USB printer into a Windows 8 PC, youre set: Windows
automatically recognizes the newly plugged-in printer as
soon as its turned on, and it tells other networked PCs
about it, too, whether the PCs are running Windows 8,
Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP. The shared
printer automatically appears in apps Print dialog boxes
and menus, in both the Windows Desktop and Start screen.
Deleting
or changing: You can delete

or change some, but not all, of the items in
another persons homegroup.
Windows allows you to join only one homegroup at a
time, so in effect youre limited to one homegroup on
any one network, such as at your home. Essentially, the
first PC to create a homegroup becomes the homegroup
used by all other PCs that choose to join in.
126
11_9781118484791-ch08.indd 126
11/9/12 1:16 PM
Setting Up Safety Controls

IN THIS ARTICLE
Using Windows Defender Configuring Internet Explorers defenses
Safeguarding your privacy The pros and cons of permissions
Using the Action Center
f youve used a PC for any length of time, you know that the web and
e-mail are wondrous technologies, making research, commerce, and
communications amazingly rich and easy. But you also know that
theres big danger out in the wilds of the Internet, from scammers pretending you have unknown riches coming your way to Trojan, virus, spyware,
and worm apps known collectively as malware that steal your bank
account information, trash your files, or worse.
Windows Defender protects against viruses and spyware
Dummies.com 127
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 127
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Safety and Security

Taking these basic steps can help you avoid falling for these
scams and inviting malware in:
Dont
open e-mails from people you

dont know and companies you dont do
business with. Immediately delete them
instead.
Be suspicious of any e-mails from people
you do know and companies you do

business with that ask for information
or to click embedded web links. (This
technique is called phishing.) Most are fake,
and some are very convincing fakes. Send a
new e-mail to your friends (dont reply to the
suspect messages) asking whether they really
sent the messages. And go directly to the
company websites (dont go there via a link
embedded in the e-mail, though) and log in
to your accounts to see whether there really
is updated information needed. Otherwise,
you may unwittingly allow malware to be
downloaded to your PC or give thieves the
keys to your accounts.
Dont
download free apps, music, or

videos from file-sharing sites. Almost all are
filled with malware. Even just going to those sites
can infect your PC. Only go to legitimate sites
and go there yourself, not from an e-mail link.
Avoiding Viruses
with Windows
Defender
When it comes to viruses, everything is suspect. Viruses
travel not only through e-mail messages, programs, files,
networks, and USB thumb drives, but also in screen savers,
themes, toolbars, and other Windows add-ons.
To combat the problem, Windows 8 includes a new version
of Windows Defender that incorporates Microsoft Security
Essentials, a security and antivirus program Microsoft has
long offered as a free download.
Windows Defender scans everything that enters your
computer, whether through downloads, e-mail, networks,
messaging programs, or external drives. If Windows
Defender notices something evil trying to enter your
computer, it lets you know with a message wherever you
are, in the Windows Desktop or Start screen environment.
Then Windows Defender quarantines the virus, rendering it
unable to infect your computer.
Given that about three-quarters of all e-mail is spam

those unsolicited come-ons, mostly from scammers its
easy to mistakenly click an evil web link or open one whose
embedded photo hides malware. Thats where technology
can help, and Windows has plenty of it. Just be clear: The
technology is not perfect, so your first line of defense is to
be cautious and suspicious, not to rely on the technology to
protect you from the evil once you open the door.
Requiring Passwords
Every PC and every account on a PC should be secured
with a password. Using a Microsoft account requires use of
a password, and for local accounts, Windows 8 encourages
you to use a password when you set up the accounts.
If you havent yet set a password, do so in the Users pane of
the PC Settings screen (accessible from the Settings charm).
All the security apps and settings for

Windows 8 reside on the Windows
Desktop, not on the Start screen.
128
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 128
11/9/12 1:13 PM

Windows Defender constantly scans your PC in the
background. But if your PC acts strange or youd just feel
better to check yourself, tell Windows Defender to scan your
PC immediately. Heres how to open Windows Defender:
The easiest way is to go to the Start screen and
type Windows Defender and then click or tap

its name in the results list that appears.
If you dont have a physical keyboard, open
the Start screens App bar, click or tap All Apps,

and then scroll until you find the Windows
Defender tile and click it.
In the main Windows Defender window, click or tap the

Scan Now button. If you think you have something nasty
lurking deep in your PC, before you click or tap Scan Now,
select the Full option from the scan options that appear
above the Scan Now button.
Windows Defender normally doesnt scan flash drives and
portable hard drives. To include them, go to its Settings
pane (click or tap the Settings tab to switch to it), select
Advanced from the list at left, and then select the Scan
Removable Drives check box. Click or tap Save Changes to
save the changes.
Dont run more than one antivirus app, because they

often quarrel. If you want to test a different program,
first disable Windows Defender by going to its
Settings pane, selecting the Administrator option,
and then deselecting the Turn On Windows Defender
check box. Restart your PC and then install the new
antivirus app. If you decide not to use the new one,
uninstall it and re-enable Windows Defender by
selecting the Turn On Windows Defender check box.
Staying Safe on the Internet

The Internet is not a safe place. Some people design
websites specifically to exploit the latest vulnerabilities in
Windows the ones Microsoft hasnt yet patched. But
you can reduce your risk by using the security settings in
Internet Explorer (IE) 10.
Reducing the success of phishing scams

When you first run Internet Explorer, make sure
its SmartScreen filter is turned on by clicking or
tapping the Tools icon (shown in the margin)
and choosing Safety from the top menu. When
the Safety menu appears, choose Turn On
SmartScreen Filter if you see it (because that
means it was turned off). If you see Turn Off
SmartScreen Filter, leave it be youre already
protected.
What SmartScreen does is compares a websites address

with a list of known phishing sites. If it finds a match, the
SmartScreen filter warns you against opening the web page.
Heed its advice.
You can warn Microsoft if you spot a site that smells
suspiciously like phish. Choose ToolsSafetyReport
Unsafe Website from Internet Explorers menu bar. Internet
Explorer takes you to Microsofts SmartScreen Filter website
to report the evildoer so Microsoft can investigate and warn
other users if it finds the site is for phishing.
You change the security settings in the

Windows Desktop version of IE 10, and
your settings apply to the Start screen
version as well.
Dummies.com 129
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 129
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Safety and Security
If enabled, IE 10s SmartScreen warns you of suspected phishing sites
Setting security zones

IE 10 uses a technology called security zones that determines
the level of protection to apply to websites you visit. The
default settings work well and should be changed only
for good reason. To see or change the settings, choose
ToolsInternet Options and then go to the Security pane
in the Internet Options dialog box that opens.
IE 10 offers four security zones, each offering a different
level of protection. When you add different websites to
different zones, IE 10 treats those sites differently, placing
restrictions on some and lifting restrictions for others. Heres
the rundown:
Internet: IE 10 treats every website as if it were
in this catch-all zone. This zone comes preset to

offer Internet Explorers medium-high security
level, which works very well for most needs.
Local
Intranet: This zone is intended for

websites running on an internal network.
(Home users rarely have to deal with intranets
because theyre mostly found in corporations.)
Because internal websites are created in-house
and are self-contained, this zone removes some
security restrictions, letting you do more things.
Trusted
Sites: Putting sites in here means

you trust them completely (such as your banks
website).
Restricted Sites: If you dont trust a site at all
but still need to visit it, place that shady sites

web address in here. IE 10 then lets you visit
the site but not download from it or use any of
its plug-ins small downloadable programs
adding extra graphics, animation, and similar
enhancements.
If you fiddled with the security settings and suspect youve

changed them for the worse, youre not stuck. Just click
the Reset All Zones to Default Level button in the Internet
Options dialog boxs Security pane.
130
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 130
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Avoiding evil add-ons

Microsoft designed Internet Explorer to let programmers
add extra features through add-ons (also called plug-ins).
By installing an add-on program toolbars, stock tickers,
and program launchers, for example you can wring a
little more work out of IE 10.
Unfortunately, dastardly programmers began creating addons that harm users. Some add-ons spy on your activities,
bombard your screen with ads, or redirect your home page
to another site. Worst yet, some renegade add-ons install
themselves as soon as you visit a website without asking
your permission.
Windows 8 packs several guns to combat these
troublemakers. First, if a site tries to sneak a program onto
your computer, IE 10 quickly blocks it. Then IE 10 places
a warning message across the bottom of its window.
Clicking or tapping the Install button installs the program.
Then click or tap the Enable button to turn on your new
IE 10 add-on.
If a bad add-on creeps in somehow, youre not completely

out of luck. Internet Explorers Add-On Manager lets
you disable it. To see all the add-on programs installed
in Internet Explorer (and remove any that you know
are bad, unnecessary, or just plain bothersome), choose
ToolsManage Add-Ons, and in the Manage Add-Ons
dialog box that appears, select the errant add-on and click
or tap the Disable button.
Blocking intruders with a firewall

Windows uses a technology called a firewall that blocks
outsiders from getting into your PC via your Internet
connection. It should always be turned on no exceptions.
Windows 8 turns it on by default, but if it gets turned off
either accidentally or by malware, turn it back on by using
the Action Center, described later in this article.
Controlling Your
Privacy
As you get more and more connected and use more and
more online services with accounts, other people mainly
companies can track a lot of information about you.
That can make the services work better by being more
personalized and contextual, but it also allows for exposing
your personal habits, preferences, and activities to strangers
who might use it against you, such as to limit your health
insurance, deny you a job, or embarrass you publicly.
Cant find the unwanted addon? Use the Show menu to

switch among seeing All AddOns, Currently Loaded Add-Ons,
Run Without Permission, and
Downloaded Controls. Then select
the errant add-on and click Disable.
When you sign up for a service online, your activities

on that service are tracked. When you visit a website
especially a commercial one your activities are tracked.
Unfortunately, IE 10 cant tell the good downloads from the

bad, leaving the burden of proof to you. So, if you see an
installation alert and you havent requested a download,
chances are good that the site is trying to harm you:
Dont click the Install button. Instead, click one of your
Favorite links or your Home icon to quickly move to a new
website.
IE 10 alerts you about installing add-ons just in case a bad one is trying to sneak into your PC
Dummies.com 131
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 131
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Safety and Security

For the first time, Windows can now track your location,
too, if you let it. So, for example, any photo you take
includes data on where you were when you took it.
But there are steps you can take to protect your privacy,
revealing only what you must for a service worth the price
in privacy:
When an app wants access to your location
information, the first time you use it, it asks

for permission; click or tap Block if theres
not a good-enough reason to share your
location with that app. To later deny locationtracking permission for an app you granted
permission to, open its Settings charm, click or
tap Permissions, and set its Location switch to
Off. You can turn off all location tracking in the
Privacy pane of the PC Settings screen (accessible
via the Settings charm) by setting the Let Apps
Use My Location switch to Off.
Review the permissions for each of your
apps. To review permissions, open the apps

Settings charm, click or tap Permissions, and
see whats listed in the Privacy section. You
can turn off some of these permissions such as
location tracking and search-history retention
for that app right there.
Get a separate e-mail address that you use
just for your Microsoft account. That way

only your activities on your PC, at the Windows
Store, and at SkyDrive are trackable by Microsoft.
Likewise, get a separate e-mail address you use
for other services such as Facebook and Amazon.
com, so no one can track all your activities across
all your services because they are tied to a single
e-mail account. (This also helps if someone steals
your account information, because it limits what
else they can access.)
Dont
use Googles Gmail or Microsofts

Hotmail or Outlook.com. Google scans every
e-mail sent or received so it can match ads to
what youre interested in. Who knows what
else it does with that data? Microsoft swears
it doesnt use the personal data, but why take
the risk? An e-mail client such as Outlook or
Thunderbird doesnt track you.
In browsers, always use private browsing
so your web visits arent tracked. In Internet

Explorer, its called InPrivate; Firefox calls it
Incognito; Chrome uses Private Browsing.
InPrivate browsing is available only in the
Windows Desktop version of IE 10; choose
ToolsSafetyInPrivate Browsing or press
Ctrl+Shift+P to enable it.
Those Annoying Permission Requests

After more than 20 years of development, Windows is still
pretty nave. Sometimes when you run a program or try to
change a setting on your PC, Windows cant tell whether
youre doing the work or malware is trying to move in.
The Windows solution? When Windows 8 notices anybody
(or anything) trying to change something that can potentially
harm Windows or your PC, it darkens the screen and flashes
a message asking for permission.
If one of these permission messages appears unexpectedly,
Windows 8 may be warning you about a bit of nastiness
trying to sneak in. So click No or Dont Install to deny it
permission. But if youre trying to do something specific
with your PC and Windows 8 puts up its boxing gloves,
click Yes or Install, instead. Windows 8 drops its guard and
lets you in.
Click Dont Install if a permissions message like this appears out of the blue.
132
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 132
11/9/12 1:13 PM

But, wait, theres more: If your account doesnt have
administrator privileges, you cant simply approve the deed.
You must track down someone with administrator privileges
and ask him or her to type in the administrator password.
The good news about this extra work is that its also an
extra challenge for the people who write the malware.
If you have an administrator password, you can restrain
Windows 8 from asking for confirmation, though doing so
means theres more risk of something unwanted sneaking
in. So dont do it unless you are a vigilant, safe-computing
kind of person.
To make Windows stop asking for confirmation, open

Control Panel, click or tap the User Accounts and Family
Safety link, and click the User Accounts icon. The Make
Changes to your User Account page appears. Click or tap the
Change User Account Control Settings link. A slider appears
onscreen, set three-quarters of the way up to Default. To
reduce the permissions intrusions, move the slider down;
to increase its strictness, slide it up. Click or tap OK after
choosing your comfort level.
Managing Your Safety in the Action Center

Take a minute to check your PCs safety with the
Windows Desktops Action Center. Part of Control
Panel, the Action Center displays any problems it
notices with the Windows 8 main defenses, and it
provides handy, one-button fixes for the situations.
Its taskbar icon, the white flag shown in the margin,
always shows the Action Centers current status.
The Action Center window color-codes problems by their
severity; a blood red band shows critical problems requiring
immediate action, and a yellow band means the problem
needs attention soon.
If any of your computers security defenses arent loaded

and pointing in the right direction, the Action Centers
taskbar icon appears with a red X across the flag. When you
spot that red-flagged icon on your taskbar, click or tap the
Action Center icon and choose Open Action Center from
the menu that appears. After the Action Center opens, click
or tap the button next to flagged items to fix the potential
security problems.
The Action Center lets you turn on your computers main defenses.
Dummies.com 133
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 133
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Safety and Security
Backing Up with
File History
IN THIS ARTICLE
Setting
up backups Restoring files and data to your PC
our hard drive will eventually die, unfortunately,

and it will take everything down with it: years of
digital photos, music, letters, financial records,
scanned memorabilia, and anything else youve created or
stored on your PC.
Thats why you must back up your files on a regular basis.
When your hard drive finally walks off the stage, your
backup copy lets you keep the show on the road.
Windows 8 includes a new backup solution called File
History. After you turn it on, File History automatically backs
up every file in your libraries where the My Pictures, My
Videos, My Documents, and My Music folders reside
every hour. The program is easy to turn on, is simple to
figure out, runs automatically, and backs up everything you
need.
But before File History can go to work, you need an

external hard drive to hold the backups. These drives are
inexpensive and plug in easily via a USB port. Many dont
need their own power supply, though these models cost
more. Be sure to get an external drive with at least twice the
capacity of your computers internal hard drive to give you
room to store multiple versions of your files, so you can go
back to specific versions when needed.
File History saves your own data, not your apps or

Windows itself. After all, apps and Windows can
always be reinstalled from their installation discs,
installer downloads (which you might want to copy
to a recordable CD for safety), or the Windows Store.
134
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 134
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Backing Up with File History
Setting Up File History

Follow these steps to tell your PC to start backing up your work automatically every hour:
Plug your drive into your PC via

its USB cable and make sure its
turned on.
Click or tap the pop-up

notification that says, Tap
to choose what happens
with removable drives. This
notification appears when you
connect any new storage device.
When the File History window

appears, click or tap the Turn
On button. File History begins
saving copies of your files,
which may take several hours
the first time.
Select the Configure This Drive

for Backup option.
When connecting a new hard drive, you may see a

pop-up asking whether youd like to recommend this
drive to other members of your homegroup. If its a
large drive meant for everybody on your computer to
share, click or tap Yes. If youd like to keep it for your
personal backups, click or tap No.
You can also set up File History in the Control Panel, as

well as change the drive used for backup there. To do so,
click or tap the System and Security link and then click or
tap the File History link. The File History app opens and
takes a guess as to which drive you want to begin filling
with your backups. If you need to use a different drive,
click or tap the Select Drive link in the windows left pane
and select the desired drive. Then click or tap the Turn On
button.
File
Although File History does a remarkable job at keeping

everything easy to use and automatic, it comes with a few
bits of fine print, described here:
Windows 8 normally backs up files automatically
If you try to save to a shared drive on another
PC, Windows 8 asks you to enter a username

and password from an administrator account
on the other PC.
History backs up everything in your

libraries, Documents, Music, Pictures, and
Videos, as well as whats in the Public folders.
Thats natural because thats where you store
your files. To exclude some folders in those
libraries (perhaps exclude your Videos folder if
you already have copies of your videos), click
or tap the Exclude Folders option in the File
History windows left pane.
every hour. To change that schedule, click or
tap the Advanced Settings option in the File
History windows left pane. Then choose the
backup frequency, which ranges from every 10
minutes to once a day.
Dummies.com 135
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 135
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Safety and Security
Recovering Data from File History

To browse through your backed up files and
folders, restoring the ones you want, open
the folder containing the items youd like to
retrieve. If you want to restore a previous version of a
particular file, be sure to select that file. On the Ribbons
Home tab (click or tap Home to see it), click or tap the
History button, shown in the margin.
Clicking the History button opens the File History app,
which looks much like a plain old folder. It shows whats
been backed up: your libraries, your desktop, your contacts,
and your favorite websites.
Open the folders to find what you want to restore. After
youve found what you want, heres how to select what you
want to restore:
All libraries: To restore all libraries such as

after refreshing your PC select Libraries in
the File History window.
Library: To restore an entire library

perhaps your Documents library select the
Documents library in the File History window.
(Dont open the Documents library; just click or
tap it once to select it.)
Folder: To restore an entire folder, open the
library where it resides. When you can see the

folder, select it again, dont open it.
Files:
To restore a group of files, open the

folder containing them so the files icons are
onscreen.
File History lets you restore backups from any of your libraries, desktop, contacts, or
Internet Explorer favorites
a dialog box appears, asking how you want to resolve the

conflicting versions. You can replace the current file with
the one you chose to restore, you can skip the restore and
leave the current file in place, or you can keep both files
in the original location. (The restored file gets a numeral
appended to its name in that case.)
When youre done restoring, exit File History by closing its
window.
One
file: To restore an earlier version of a

file, open that file from inside the File History
window; File History displays that files
contents.
As you decide what to restore, you can browse through

different versions of what youre currently viewing, by using
the and icons at the bottom of the screen to move
backward and forward in time, respectively, through your
backed-up copies. As you move forward and backward
through the versions, feel free to open libraries, folders, or
individual files, peeking inside them until youre looking at
the version that you want to retrieve.
When youve selected what you want to restore, click or tap
the Restore button (the curved-arrow icon). File History puts
the selected files and folders back in its original location. If
a newer version of a selected item is in that same location,
Use the arrow buttons in File History to navigate among versions of a file.
136
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 136
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Setting Up Parental Controls
Setting Up
Parental Controls
The user account window in the Family Safety control panel
feature much-welcomed by parents and much-booed

by their children, the Family Safety control panel
offers several ways to police how people can access
the computer, as well as the Internet. People who share their
PC with roommates should use Family Safety as well.
Family Safety works best under these conditions:
The
PCs owner or manager must have an

administrator account. Everyone else
especially children or your roommates
should have standard accounts so they cant
override your Family Safety settings.
If your children have their own PCs, create an

administrator account on their PCs for yourself.
Then change their accounts to standard so they
cant override your Family Safety settings.
Although the Family Safety controls work well, few

things in the computer world are foolproof. If youre
worried about your childrens computer usage,
check up on them in person, and maybe check their
browsing history and e-mail and messaging accounts
periodically as well.
Dummies.com 137
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 137
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Safety and Security

To set up Family Safety, take these steps:
Open the Control Panel, and in

the User Accounts and Family
Safety section, click or tap Set
Up Family Safety for Any User.
Click or tap the icon or name

of the user to whom you want
to apply Family Settings. (If
that person has administrator
privileges, youll be asked
whether to change the persons
account type to standard, which
you must do if you want to
apply Family Safety settings to
that account.)
Select the On, Enforce Current

Settings option and then go
through the various settings
described next and set them as
desired.
Here are the types of Family Safety settings you can impose:
Web
Filtering: To supervise small children,

click or tap this link. In the window that
appears, select the Name Can Use Only the
Websites I Allow option. Use the Set Web
Filtering Level link to choose from five levels
of filtering and to optionally disable file
downloads. Use the Allow or Block Specific
Websites link to enter the web addresses for
websites you want to allow or block you
can do both in the window that appears.
access to games with certain ratings (ratings

appear on most software boxes), and block or
allow individual games.
App
Restrictions: You can block all apps

(both Windows Desktop and Start screen
apps), or you can allow access to only a handful of programs by selecting their check boxes
in the list of installed apps.
Time Limits: This link opens a window from

which you can set how many hours the user
can use the PC each day, as well as what time
period the user can use the PC a curfew,
basically. The curfew can be set separately for
each day of the week.
Windows
Store and Game Restrictions:

You may allow or ban all games here, restrict
Be sure to click or tap the View

All Reports link in each users
Family Safety control panel to
see what activity Windows has
recorded them doing.
138
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 138
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Refreshing and Restoring Windows
Refreshing and
Restoring Windows
litch happens. The computer misbehaves, a program crashes, or the machine becomes unexpectedly slow. If your computer is misbehaving, try
refreshing it, which sets Windows back to its original condition, removes any Windows Desktop apps you installed
(Start screen apps are retained), but leaves any files in the
libraries where your photos, music, videos, and documents reside unmolested. If refreshing doesnt work, you
can reset your PC, which essentially erases everything and
makes you start all over again from scratch (which is why
you should use File History to restore your data in such a
situation).
You should also create a recovery disk so you can start

your PC should something go wrong on its hard drive.
Youll need a recordable CD, recordable DVD, USB thumb
drive, or USB hard drive it doesnt matter which to
contain the recovery files and act as the recovery disk if
needed. To do so, open Control Panel and enter recover
in its search box and then press Enter or click or tap the
Search button (the magnifying-glass icon). Click or tap the
Recovery icon that appears and, in the Recovery control
panel that opens, click the Create Recovery Drive link and
follow the instructions.
Dummies.com 139
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 139
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Safety and Security
Refreshing a PC
Windows 8 makes it very easy to refresh your PC: Open PC
Settings in the Settings charm, go to the General pane, and
scroll down to the bottom. Under the heading Refresh Your
PC without Affecting Your Files, click or tap the Get Started
button. A screen appears letting you know what will be
removed. Click or tap Next to continue.
Windows may need your original Windows 8 installation
disc or a recovery disk before proceeding. If so, it will ask
you to insert either one. If you dont have the required
media, click or tap Cancel you cant refresh your PC.
Click or tap the Refresh button to begin the refresh process,

your PC will restart at least once. When the refresh process
is complete, the Lock screen appears. Sign in as usual. Go
to the Windows Desktop and look for a file named Removed
Apps on the desktop; double-click or double-tap it to open
the file in Internet Explorer so you can see a list of Windows
Desktop apps that were removed. If youre aware that one
of these apps created a problem or dont recognize an app
(thats a sign it could be malware), dont reinstall it.
Keeping Windows up-to-date

Things change. Microsoft enhances some Windows
capabilities, it adds support for new hardware devices, it
fixes some bugs in its software, and it finds new malware
for Windows Defender to block. To get those updates to
you, Microsoft includes the Windows Update feature in
Windows 8. The updates are automatically downloaded
and installed for you, as long as your PC has an Internet
connection.
It really is that easy.
But if you want to force an update maybe you read

about a new update and your PC hasnt yet gotten around
to installing it you can force it by going to the PC Settings
screen and accessing the Windows Update pane.
If there are any updates downloaded but not yet installed,
youll see a note to that effect, as well as a link you can
click or tap to force the installation immediately. You can
also check for updates not yet downloaded by clicking or
tapping the Check for Updates Now button.
140
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 140
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Refreshing and Restoring Windows
Wiping Your PC for a Clean Start

The refresh function is the best choice for handling
a Windows PC that may have corrupted Windows or
application files, or where malware is lurking that Windows
Defender cant root out. Sometimes, though, you need
to truly wipe out the PC. Perhaps youre giving your old
PC to someone else and want to make sure no personal
information is left on it. Perhaps something has gone so
terribly wrong in Windows that the only way to fix it is to
essentially start over. Thats what the reset function is for.
Before you reset your computer, make sure you have a

complete backup of all your files (you can use the File
History feature) and all your installation discs or installation
files (saved to an external drive or recordable disc). You
dont need to save your Start screen apps because the
Windows Store keeps a record of what youve downloaded
and will re-download them for you on the new PC.
To wipe the PC, follow these steps:

click the PC Settings link. Scroll
down to the bottom of the
General pane, and under the
heading Remove Everything and
Reinstall Windows, click or tap
the Get Started button.
A screen appears, reminding

you of what will be wiped out.
Click or tap Next to continue.
As with a PC refresh, you may
need your original Windows
installation disc or a recovery
disk to continue.
When the Reset process is complete, your computer will be

in pristine condition, with just
Windows 8 installed. You need
to set up your user accounts,
reinstall your apps, and restore
your files just as if it were a
brand-new PC.
One more screen appears,

asking how you want to handle
the removal of your personal
files. You have two options.
Select the Thoroughly, but
This Can Take Several Hours
option if you plan to sell the
computer or give it to someone
you dont know or trust. Select
Quickly, but Your Files Might Be
Recoverable by Someone Else if
youre keeping the computer or
giving it to someone you know
and trust. Your files arent likely
to be recovered by most users
other than computer ninjas
(such as some 15-year-olds or
computer science majors). Click
or tap Reset to wipe your PC;
your computer will restart at
least once.
Dummies.com 141
12_9781118484791-ch09.indd 141
11/9/12 1:13 PM
Exploring Windows 8 For Dummies

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
Hoboken, New Jersey
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under
Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States
Copyright Act, without either the prior written
permission of the Publisher, or authorization
through payment of the appropriate per-copy
fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222
Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978)
750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the
Publisher for permission should be addressed
to the Permissions Department, John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030,
(201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at
http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For
Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference
for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies
Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com,
Making Everything Easier, and related trade
dress are trademarks or registered trademarks
of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates
13_9781118484791-bother01.indd 142
in the United States and other countries, and

may not be used without written permission.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft
Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or
vendor mentioned in this book.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF
WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE
AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS
OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE
ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE
CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY
DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING
WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR
EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL
MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES
CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE
FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS
SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT
THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN
RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL
ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES
OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON
SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE
PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE
LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM.
THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR
WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK
AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL
SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES
NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE
PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION
THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY
PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY
MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE
AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED
IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR
DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK
WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.
For general information on our other products

and services, please contact our Customer Care
Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974,
outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317572-4002.
For technical support, please visit www.
wiley.com/techsupport.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some
material included with standard print versions
of this book may not be included in e-books or
in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media
such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the
version you purchased, you may download this
material at http://booksupport.wiley.
com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Control Number:
2012949798
ISBN 978-1-118-48479-1 (pbk); ISBN 978-1118-49391-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-49392-2
(ebk); 978-1-118-49393-9 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
11/9/12 2:06 PM

Win 8 For Dummies

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Win 8 For Dummies

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Win 8 For Dummies

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Exploring

Using Windows 8 on Touchscreens..................... 8

Were proud of this book; please send us

Working with Charms ..................................... 20

Some of the people who helped bring this

Windows 8 Basics .............................................. 2

Apps and Files ................................................. 28

Acquisitions and Editorial

Files in the Cloud with SkyDrive...................... 43

Sr. Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees

Safety and Security........................................ 127

Debbie Stailey, Director of

Setting Up Parental Controls......................... 137

ts the biggest change to Windows since Windows XP debuted over a decade

Getting Started with

ts the Windows for everything: Windows 8 is the

Getting Started with Windows 8

Whats New in Windows 8

Start screen: This is now the environment you

see first and that Microsoft hopes youll use

Windows Desktop: Although the Start

Among the changes in the updated Windows Desktop:

The Start button has been removed youre

supposed to use the Start screen as your

Explorer has been renamed File

Task Manager, where advanced users monitor

whats happening in Windows, has gotten a lot

And if you have multiple monitors connected to your PC,

The Start screen is

screen and its apps represent the biggest

Windows 8 boasts a new way to reinstall

Working with User

Mouse: On a desktop PC or laptop, click any

Keyboard: Press any key, and the lock screen

Touchscreen: On a touchscreen display, touch

the screen with your finger and then slide your

The lock screen may show some status icons:

Signing in to your user account

to create user accounts in the next section.) And multiple

Getting Started with Windows 8

If you see your name and e-mail address

listed, type your password. Windows 8 lets

If you just bought the computer, use the

the Guest account. Designed for

No Guest account? Then find out who owns

In addition to Administrator and standard accounts,

account: This account works fine for

account: Consisting of an e-mail

You can sign in with a Microsoft account in either of two

Use an existing Microsoft account. If you

use Outlook.com, Hotmail, Windows Live,

up for a new Microsoft account.

Until you customize your username picture, youll see

If you have multiple user accounts, its easy to switch

Setting up and modifying user accounts

Open the Charms bar and click

Click or tap the Change PC

Click or tap Users in the menu

Enter an e-mail address to add